What a fascinating and enjoyable time we islanders had at Tony and Jenna’s house last night. I was so impressed by the ofrendas (altars with decorations and offerings) people made to honor their deceased loved ones. Wow!! So many people participated in doing this – it was beautiful.
If you missed last night’s festivities, look…
I know very little about Día de los Muertos, so it was a learning experience for me, as this was the first one I had ever attended. To give words to the feeling, think meaningful, loving, abundant, celebratory, and perhaps mournful yet joyful. With a degree in Cultural Anthropology, I absolutely love learning more about cultures. The more ethnic, cultural get-togethers, the better.
If you, too, don’t know much about this celebration, here is a short National Geographic video:
Tony and Jenna had DJ Bodhicypha there playing music, and Jenna even sang a beautiful song in Spanish, “La Llorona.”
She is a natural.
I think we have a new Orcas Center star on the island – sign her up for theatrical events, y’all!
The Morenos had 1st and 2nd place prizes for best ofrendas. This ofrenda won 2nd place:
This ofrenda, masterminded by Natalia Villareal to honor her family, won the 1st place prize – a TV!
To learn more about ofrendas, here is a short write-up by Ayana Archie on npr.org:
Each year, Nov. 1 marks the beginning of Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, in Mexico.
The holiday is a day of remembrance for those who have died. Its origins can be traced to pre-colonial Mexico, when it was believed that the souls of dead loved ones returned to their families once a year so that their lives could be celebrated.
Today, families commemorate the day by creating ofrendas, the Spanish word for offerings that colloquially is used to mean altar for Día de los Muertos.
What goes on an ofrenda?
Ofrendas can be customized to your liking, but many of them have some key elements.
- Photos of your friends and family
- Candles and incense
- Water
- Cempasúchil, or marigolds
- Sweets
- Your loved ones’ favorite foods
- Decorations, such as skulls and tissue paper flowers
How to build the ofrenda
The first thing you will need is a table — any kind will do. The table is then draped with a decorative tablecloth. It is customary in Mexican culture to use a serape, which has its own distinct striped pattern. Ofrendas may also have several layers – the top layer represents heaven while the base represents earth. To achieve this, you can stack boxes underneath the tablecloth.
Add marigolds. The bright color and strong scent of cempasúchil is believed to make it easier for deceased loved ones to find their way back to you.
The light from candles is also an element that helps spirits return.
Add your loved ones’ favorite foods to the altar as an offering.
Decorate with things such as figurines and colorful skulls, which represent the cycle of life and death.
Put up pictures!
While we’re on the subject of the Spanish language, in case you can’t speak it, know that día means day, de means of, los is the masculine plural of the, and muertos is plural and means dead ones. There is a lot of mispronunciation, so I thought I’d clarify.
Tony and Jenna so generously provided all kinds of wonderful tamales, amazing sugar skulls called calaveritas de azúcar, and pan de muerto (bread of the dead).
Here are some videos on skull-making and bread-making, if you feel so inclined next year for the party. Yes, the Morenos intend to keep the tradition going!
Here are some tips I learned about face painting from my experience…
I have never been a hair or makeup girl, but I decided to go for the full painted face for last night’s event. At the last minute, I ordered a paint set and a face gem set online that both arrived the day before the party. I learned after ordering this that water-based paint might be better, but this worked great for me.
Next time, I would get glow-in-the-dark paint, which the face painter, Julianna Estrella, was using at the party. I didn’t even know about this stuff, and it glowed even better than this photo shows.
On Sunday I went to Ray’s and bought two inexpensive eye shadow brushes, figuring that if I needed any more, I’d just used some of the paint brushes in my art drawer. (I only needed one of them – a very small, thin one to draw tiny lines.) If you don’t have makeup brushes, I learned by doing that paintbrushes work well.
I picked a few faces I liked online…
But then found a tutorial I was very impressed with in order to follow every step of the way:
Before embarking on painting, which would take me from daylight into the evening hours, I collected several yellow sycamore leaves on the ground in the backyard and made them into yellow “roses” since I didn’t have any real or fake flowers:
(Now I want to go and make a vase full of these, like I used to do with my mom and our boys at the kitchen table in the fall.)
It took about two hours to do my face and about 30 minutes to put the face gems on, only because I can’t see very well without glasses, so I was never sure if I was putting any or enough glue on the back of each tiny gem, which would then get a little stuck to my finger or fall in the sink as I was applying it to my face. For this reason, I would recommend using big gems like the ones the girl above uses in her video. In planning to paint my face for Día de los Muertos, I wasn’t originally thinking about how I can’t see up close without my glasses on, so it was all a bit of a blur for me that I hoped would come together in the end. I figured even if it didn’t go well, at least we’d all be in the dark, but it worked out okay. With good vision, you would probably work much faster and not need as much time before the party.
Here is a before and after:
When we got home from the party, it hit me that I hadn’t even thought about how to get all the paint off! Thank goodness for YouTube. I did a quick search of how to remove oil-based costume paint and this was a fantastic find that I followed:
I had olive oil in the kitchen, but I remembered that olive oil is one of the main ingredients in an Island Thyme cream I have at home, so I used it and it worked amazingly, just as in the video above.
A friend of mine just told me in the library about how amazingly the city of Oaxaca celebrates Día de los Muertos. Here is a photo by Enis Yücel:
Perhaps someday she and I will meet there for Día de los Muertos!
Thank you for a real treat last night, Tony and Jenna! You spoiled us all. Your generosity was unparalleled and perhaps next year we can all contribute in some way, whether with potluck items, decorations, or anything you need! I have never celebrated my deceased loved ones, and I think this is a wonderful way to intentionally take the time to remember them.
Readers, make sure to visit Tony and Jenna at their hair studio in Eastsound across from the beach. They are so talented at what they do!
