The celebration of Día de los Muertos at the Hollywood Forever Memorial Park was indeed a fascinated festivity. Despite the heavy traffic and the lack of parking space, people kept pouring into the park until the festival ended at mid night. Music, food, art, fashion… The vivid culture branched out and displayed in various forms, but all were from and would return to its only root. Heritage.

2011 © Optical Collimator

The rituals celebrating the deaths of ancestors have been practiced by cultures around the world for thousand years. During the pre-Hispanic era, it was common to keep skulls as trophies and display them during the rituals to symbolize death and rebirth. As for the Día de los Muertos, scholars traced its origin of the modern Mexican holiday to an Aztec rite dating back hundreds of years that dedicated to goddess Mictecacihuatl.

In Aztec mythology, the goddess was known as Lady of the Dead since it is believed that she was sacrificed as an infant, then became Queen of the underworld to reign over the afterlife with another deity who was designated as her husband, Mictlantecuhtli. The role of goddess Mictecacihuatl was to keep watch over the bones of the dead. After the ancient festivals of the dead evolved from Aztec traditions, and synthesis with Spanish cultural traditions, into the modern Día de los Muertos, the goddess was acceded to the modern Catrina. The festival that became the modern Día de los Muertos fell in the ninth month of the Aztec calendar, sometime in the beginning of August, and was celebrated throughout the month.

2011 © Optical Collimator

Traditions associated with the modern Día de los Muertos involved visiting graves and building private altars to honor the deceased with sugar skulls, marigolds, along with favorite foods, beverages, photos and memorabilia of the departed. The intent was to encourage visits by the souls, so that the souls would hear prayers and comments of the living directed to them. Plans for this day were made throughout the year, including gathering the goods to be offered to the dead. During a three-day period, families would visit the cemeteries where their loved ones were buried and usually cleaned, decorated their graves with ofrendas and cempasúchitl—offerings which often included Mexican Marigolds.

In modern Día de los Muertos, the traditional cempasúchitl was sometimes replaced with Flor de Muerto—or Flower of the Dead. These flowers were thought to attract the souls of the dead to the offerings. In some parts of Mexico, people had picnics and would spend all night beside the graves of their relatives praying and telling anecdotes about the deceased. In some locations, celebrants wore shells on their clothing, so that when they danced, the noise would wake up the dead; some even dressed up as the deceased.

2011 © Optical Collimator

Día de los Muertos celebrations in America were held similar to those in Mexico. In California, Texas and Arizona, the interactions between Mexican traditions and American culture were being extended to make artistic; sometimes, political statements. For instance, an altar were presented at Hollywood Forever Memorial Park to honor the fallen Latino soldiers.

2011 © Optical Collimator

Conventional altars were set up side-by-side with altars honoring the multi-talented actress Jayne Mansfield and guitarist Johnny Ramone. While colorful Aztec dancers carried out their ritual dance on the sidewalk, performance artists blended their souls with music on a large stage located on the other end of the park. Visitors were hypnotized by the artistic makeups of local artists sitting by the side of their altars. The aroma of food, the sound of music, people laughter ignited excitements and shaped this festivity into a unique art gala. The spirit of Día de los Muertos lived on.

2011 © Optical Collimator