The altar of the dead
It is about finding the intimate space between our- selves and the memory of our loved ones who are no longer among us. It is about honoring our ancestors and our old culture that goes back to the time before the Spanish came.
Different Mesoamerican groups used to bury their dead together with objects, and food that, according to their beliefs, were useful for the deceased in their next life.
In colonial times elements from the catholic faith were included in the offerings, such as saint figures, images of the Virgin Mary and crucifixes, which can see and enjoy on today’s altars for the dead.
Magical Mexico will through the altar of the dead present: the beauty of longing as a main concept for the ritual offering.
Fire is an essential element represented by can- dlesticks and the candles with Cempasúvhil flower. Cempoalxochitl – flower with innumerable kron- blader –which delights the eye, brightens the way and gives warmth.
The dead are offered water so that they can drink refresh themselves as soon as they arrive home. As it is said, “the dead have walked on a path full of dust.”
In this ritual offering we can enjoy Jose Guadalupe Posada’s famous painting “La Catarina”, painted with oil painting on silk paper by artist Bernardo Gonzalez from Oaxaca.
Death has a special place in Mexican culture. It is a character that we talk, play and laugh with and some- times laugh at through rhyme, song, poetry and Mexican folk songs (corridos). We paint it, we remake it as sugar, as a monument of a cranium, made of sugar and painted with flowers of different colors.
Here we see a child’s skeleton on a bicycle in paper, surrounded by its favorite games. The altar is protected by “el Catarin”, the skeleton in papier-mâché that is part of Mexican folk culture.
Alteret blir beskyttet av ”el Catrin”, skjelettet i pappmasje, som er en del av den meksikanske folkekulturen.
The offering is dedicated to the memory of the artist Frida Kahlo, whom we see on the charcoal drawing of artist Juan Gomez Salazar.
The ritual offer consists of 3 levels
- 1. level: The time before the Spanish came
- 2. level: The present – a fusion of old and moderne
- 3. level: The future
I invite you to join us and prepare to receive the souls of our beloved with objects, pictures, candles, flowers, music, incense, sweets and fruit.
Thelma Murillo Gomez, Magical Mexico, November 2008
Magical Mexico
Is it really such that we liver on this earth?
Not for always on earth
Just for a little while here
Even jade breaks
Even gold is destroyed
Even the feathers of Quetzal are ripped to pieces.
Not forever here on earth
Just for a little while Just for a little while
Just for a little while
Pre-Columbian poem by Netzahulacoyotl, Aztec king and poet
