Two things come to mind when thinking about festive skeletons — Jerry Garcia and the Mexican national holiday El Dia los Muertos, which translates to “the Day of the Dead.” The celebration has a complex history, with origins in 3,000-year-old Aztec rituals and Catholic theology.
When Spanish conquistadors first began conquering the native cultures of Central America, the indigenous inhabitants were reluctant to give up certain month-long ceremonies that showcased the skulls of their dead ancestors. Under church influence, the rituals were eventually moved to coincide with the religiously observed All Souls Day, to make them a little less pagan. Today the holiday is approached joyfully with the belief that death is not an end, but the beginning of a new stage. Families clean and decorate graves, and offerings such as flowers, tequila and sugar skulls are made and presented to the gravesite. Many families build altars or shrines in their homes, displaying pictures of their deceased loved ones along with statues of the Virgin Mary and Christian crosses.
To get in on the show in our own fair city, you can take a Day of the Dead altar-making class Oct. 27 at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft and build your own shrine to a deceased relative, pet, nature or perhaps even Garcia. The glue will be guided under the experienced tutelage of artist Jacque Parsley, who has been creating altars for 20 years. “I started building them to unknown strangers, no one specific, with found objects,” says Parsley, an avid follower of all things Mexican who immersed herself further in the culture 10 years ago when she bought a second home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with husband Dr. Robert Solinger.
Parsley has experienced the festival firsthand. “I have been to two Day of the Dead celebrations, one in San Miguel and the other in Oaxaca, and they are wonderful,” she says. The Museumof Artand Craft will honor this ancient custom with a weeklong piecing together of a public altar (all are welcome to bring symbolic items for placement) from Oct. 26-Nov. 2. The event will conclude with a fiesta of food and music and a parade at the Nov. 2 First Friday Gallery/Trolley Hop. For class costs and other information call the museum at 589-0102.
