"Castillo" in the making

Dia de Los Muertos alter on the Ajijic plaza

These guys are putting together one of the castillos that will be lit up as part of the Dia de Los Muertos celebration the first few days of this month. These handmade structures are amazing to behold when they set them off - producing spinning, shooting and generally exploding showers of sparks and fireworks. Look at a photo in my post dated 1/13/15 to see what that looks like.

I took the two photos below at the plaza in Ajijic on Nov 2 (All Souls Day) and this huge altar was very impressive, incorp-orating a skeleton on the left and a Catrina standing on the right.  The Catrinas are feminine skeletons, usually dressed up in long dresses and large hats, as this one is, but not always. Please look at my posts from 12/5/14 and 12/13/14 for great pictures from a year ago, when they had a wonderful collection of La Calavera (skull) Catrinas on display on the malecon in Chapala.  There was no display this year. They couldn't have topped last year's group anyway. What imagination!

The photo below shows a bit more detail of what is actually put on the altar for the person who is being honored. For those that aren't familiar with this Mexican holiday, it epitamizes the way people view death in this country. It's refreshing, but hard for those of us raised in other areas to grasp. I read an article in the local English language newspaper that explains from the Mexican perspective that "Most people don't have a fear of death" but they fear the process of dying. This is a quote from a Mexican nun who runs a non-profit hospice facility - very small - in this area, by the way. But, I digress...

To continue with the explanation of this holiday, people celebrate (literally) the dead relatives and friends by putting out their favorite food and drink, and with photos and other memorabilia on the altar. Then they visit the grave site and have a picnic and swap anecdotes about the departed. The marigolds are thought to attract the souls of the dead to visit the party. A couple of years ago we visited the main cemetary for Ajijic during this holiday and it was refreshing to see all the families, friends and visitors there to view the beautiful gravesites that had been painstakingly cleaned up and decorated, having comida (picnics) there and laughing at funny stories being shared. Those of us from north of the border should, perhaps, take a cue from this perspective, as death is historically treated as such a tragic thing with our funerals attended by grief-stricken family and friends. Yes, we should miss our relatives that have passed, but I personally don't think that grief serves any purpose if extended for any long period of time (my own perspective based on having lost several close relatives including my Mother and Father).

Another alter inside the Cultural Center