For those of us who love Halloween, why not celebrate Dia de los Muertos too? This way, you get to extend Halloween out through November the 4th. At least this is how I look at it. Although these two holidays are completely different, they have enough similarities to make them both enjoyable. Let’s talk about the Dia de los Muertos or the “Day of the Dead” festival hosted this year at Clemson University.
To educate those who may not know, Dia de los Muertos is a holiday primarily observed by the Mexican people in which they remember friends and family who have passed away. Generally, families will put photos of their deceased loved ones on alters and light candles for them. They will place the favorite foods and beverages of the deceased on the alters as well. Sometimes, they go to the graveyards and take food, beverages, flowers, etc. as gifts to their deceased loved ones. While I was at the festival, I learned from a Spanish lady that the type of flowers used are yellow and orange marigolds or “cempasuchil” in Spanish. In ways, this celebration is one of life and of joy. The focus is on remembering our friends and family who have gone on and celebrating the good times we had with them. In these ways, they live on with us.
I have been fascinated with this holiday for a long time. The art is what has drawn me in for sure. In many ways, this is an artist’s holiday. First and most commonly, we see the sugar skulls. These are the skeletons painted with flowers and designs that we commonly see now. Another artistic thing that happens around this holiday is face painting. Many times people celebrating this holiday will paint their faces like that of a skeleton or their entire body. Fashion is another artistic aspect of this holiday. I cannot begin to describe some of the dresses I have seen folks wearing along with their skeleton paint on a Facebook group I belong to dedicated to Dia de los Muertos.
Being that photography is a passion of mine, I have wanted to photograph one of these celebrations for a long time. I live in SC and the Hispanic community is not very large so, these opportunities are few. I don’t have the luxury of being in Texas where I can go and see candlelight graveyards for instance, although I want to see this. Clemson University hosted a celebration this year and my family and I attended. It was and wasn’t what I expected. I think this is the first one to my knowledge so, I hope it grows and people like me can immerse ourselves in this colorful tradition deeper next year.
The celebration featured at least four alters that included candles, photos of loved ones, tons of cempasuchil, and the favorite foods and beverages. There was also a live mariachi band that was singing classic songs for this holiday. There were lit inflatables to commemorate this holiday and several people were there observing the celebration and participating in song. Most people were looking around and taking pictures, the same as me. Food trucks were another thing that Clemson hosted. Tin Tin Street Tacos had the longest line but, there was a Peruvian group that had home made food too. According to one fellow there, this was very good cuisine. We did not eat at the festival but did celebrate with our Mexican friends at a local restaurant we frequent.
I hope to see this festival grow next year and there be more painted people and fancy dresses for me to take pictures of. I also hope they have some ghost pepper burritos too. We’ll see.
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