2 versions of Dia de los Muertos

While Halloween is a holiday where the dead come back to scare us, Dia de los Muertos is a festive occasion where the living take the dead all their favorite things and flowers. Did Tio Jose love Fritos and Coors beer? Well, let’s take that to his grave. And Abuela–did she love baking bread and drinking orange soda? No problem. We’ll cook a loaf of bread using her recipe and take along a bottle of Orange Crush and some marigolds for her grave. Or if their graves are distant, we will build a family altar at our home or use a community altar nearby in memory of Tio Jose or Abuela.

While there is a place for both celebrations of All Saints Day, I like the Mexican version a little bit better than a scary one. So, on Saturday I drove over to the Park Place Mall to see their community ofrenda (altar), then headed across town to Mercado San Agustin to see theirs. The differences, as expected, were dramatic although the ofrenda at MSA is at least twice as large as it was when I photographed it in 2022.

Two beautiful and unique community altars

Here, side by side are images of the two altars. The MSA image shows only part of it — it was very long and heaped with things–including Fritos for Tio Jose.

I think the MSA altar conveyed the traditional spirit better than the more artful Park Place Mall one, did. But I applaud PPM for setting up this ofrenda, hiring a mariachi band to play, bringing in artists to paint images suitable for Dia de los Muertos. I was at the Tucson Mall last week (the post about that to come later this week), and there was only one display for Dia de los Muertos. Shown on left, it’s fairly minimal in my opinion.

Close-ups from Park Place Mall

The “dolls” representing the character Calavera Catrina, on the left, were in a store window in the Mall. For more about not-a-saint Calavera Catrina go here. In the center there is a hand written memorial card as well as loaves of Mexican pastries. The image on the right is a side-view of the altar and then many nicely pre-printed memorial cards, clearly prepared ahead of time.

catrina calavera dolls for Dis de los Muertos

Artists celebrate Dia de los Muertos

Here are a few of the artists and art works being created at the PPM while I was there. I loved the juxtaposition of the beautiful senorita and Death right below the sign for the Beauty and the Beast movie! Was it accidental? Or Intentional? The artists, L to R: Peniel Macias, Carolina Caples, and Victoria Kalinina.

Closeups from the Mercado San Agustin altar

There was more than one of these silver skeltons on the extended ofrenda. I love the details, on the right, of the tiny nun sculpture beside what appears to be another larger nun, or perhaps, the Virgin Mary. In the center image those paper flowers really caught my eye, and on the left, a bouquet of marigolds and a floral cross.

And people at the Mall

This child’s face was painted by his/her mother, the offical face painter, below. And the young woman, clearly inspired by Frida Kahlo, had added Monarch butterflies to her floral headband.