Day of the Dead/ Día de los Muertos Por Dana Lovallo

The History/ La historia 500+ years ago, los españoles landed in Mexico and witnessed an absurd ritual The native Aztecs were playing with skulls and dancing around There skulls were used to honor the dead during a month-long ritual La muerte isn’t a bad thing – we should celebrate those who have passed! Used to celebrate for the month of August Spaniards changed it to All Saint’s Day = November 1st and 2nd

Day of the Dead Today/ Día de los muertos hoy Today, Mexicans and other people around the world build altars to remember the dead and decorate them with photos and more! Families visit graves of loved ones and decorate them with flores, comida, juguetes y más They have a picnic next to the grave and celebrate It is a big celebration!! // Es una gran celebración

Photos of the altars and graves/Fotos de las altares y tumbas My sister went to Morelia, Mexico during the celebrations Mi hermana fue a Morelia, México durante las celebraciones

Mi hermana al lado de unos esqueletos

Why are there so many skeletons?/¿Por qué hay tantos esqueletos? In Mexico, los esqueletos aren’t supposed to be scary! They are happy and playful They are used to remember el pasado in a celebratory way

The Catrina Dolls/La Calavera Catrina In 1913, José Guadalupe Posada made a famous etching out of zinc He called it “La Calavera Catrina”, which means “The Elegant Skull” “Catrín” means elegant Ever since, beautiful skeletons have been replicated!

Otras Catrinas

Other Skeletons in Mexican Art/Otros esqueletos en el arte mexicano “Sueños de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central/Dreams of a Sunday afternoon on the main boulevard”– Diego Rivera, Mexico

Key words/Palabras claves “Día de los muertos” Los españoles La muerte Las flores La comida Los juguetes El esqueleto La calavera Catrín Celebración

References Most photos were taken by my sister and I http://lacathrine.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/diego-rivera/ http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Catrina-sculpture.jpg&imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Catrina-sculpture.jpg&usg=__wWdwgvWgM4p8DT7v9QJyG2u4-cE=&h=1674&w=667&sz=205&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=Ozkg-RUWNT866M:&tbnh=152&tbnw=61&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcatrina%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D579%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=308&ei=Sr7ITPPhMMP88AbivpCsDw&oei=Sr7ITPPhMMP88AbivpCsDw&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:16,s:0&tx=4&ty=93 http://www.educ.msu.edu/teachglobal/Americas/module3.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Calavera_Catrina http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/articles/dead-history.html