We on my mother's side do a more Dia de los Muertos thing, but on November 2. The Day of the Ancestors, is the best translation. So Halloween was for fun, and 2 November was for actively telling stories about the departed, and leaving each one a shot of liquor and a favorite food on the dining room table at the big family gathering. Of course, alcohol evaporates, and it was high-proof, so it always looked in the morning to us kids as if they'd taken sips from teh booze.

As an adult, Haloween is my hubby's fave holiday b/c he can be as weird as he likes and nobody says a word

We on my mother's side do a more Dia de los Muertos thing, but on November 2. The Day of the Ancestors, is the best translation. So Halloween was for fun, and 2 November was for actively telling stories about the departed, and leaving each one a shot of liquor and a favorite food on the dining room table at the big family gathering. Of course, alcohol evaporates, and it was high-proof, so it always looked in the morning to us kids as if they'd taken sips from teh booze.

As an adult, Haloween is my hubby's fave holiday b/c he can be as weird as he likes and nobody says a word

An artist friend of mine made me a fabulous skull sculpture honouring the Day of the Dead or Ancestors

I don't have any stories but there are sure a lot of people who have passed that deserve to be remembered and honoured.... xo

I love the evaporating booze Leo.... lol

your mother's side is the polish side? eastern europe has some intriguing customs.

in my scotts-irish druid heritage, the calendar tracked the moon cycles. all hallow's eve fell during samhain, the span between the harvest moon and the hunter's moon. the gregorian calendar in common usage today has no respect, whatsoever, for lunar cycles. ancestors are honored on the full moon nearest october 31st. the practicing druids i know still honor the lunar cycle more devoutly than pope gregory's calendar, but translation can get rugged.

suncloud,
indeed, the departed deserve to be honored. have you seen the disney animated movie, "coco?" it is the best depiction of dia de los muertos which i have ever seen. lots and lots of those famous skulls in that movie. i loved the way they portrayed the ancestors who have been forgotten.

i don't believe big bro has processed the grief over the loss of his parents yet. it is far easier to stay in his cyber box and keep it virtual. is it control freaky of me to hope that this homework assignment will help him reach that nerve outside the box?

@arfie, yep. Slavic all the way. Dad is more, er, um.... fine, hillbilly. It makes for fascinating confusion in my head!

I agree, btw, on Coco. :-)

the funnest part of the human cocktails like your slavic/hillbilly mix is that we have to try to stuff those diverse ethnic influences into a single box marked, "WHITE."

have you had your cup of bleach today?

Here in my retirement in the mountain of Mexico, arfie, it would crack you up laughing to see that both of my Mexican next door neighbors in my apartment building already have Halloween decorations up on their doors. Not the "pre-columbian holiday of "dia de los muertos."" decorations that you mention, mind you. HALLOWEEN. Then on tv and everywhere else the "dia de los muertos." is on commercials and posters, too, so I'm having a double good time this October.

i know what you mean, muji. the two are as different as hannukah and christmas. the disputes over which to celebrate get colorful.

they seemed pretty divided between the two sets of customs in ecuador, as well. the ecuadorian decorations are quite different than the mexican decorations which have invaded north america, but the base custom remains. at the catholic church i attended there, the priest opposed the halloween customs bitterly. i nearly took him to the carpet when he blamed that mess on my irish ancestors. halloween is about as druidic as chinese new year.

sigh. . .
and the beat goes on, on, on
yeah, the beat goes on

Ha! Well put, arfie!

I hope that it will help your eldezt sweetie

A chance to honour his dad could really mean a lot to him

It would mean a LOT!

total agreement on that score and not only for this troubled 11 year old. grief is a long and mysterious process. i love the idea of a shared annual event for this processing.

ditto for the mysteries of one's own heritage. it's easier to know where you are going if you know where you have been.