Results tagged “diadelosmuertos”

       

A full month of calavera painting, banner cutting, tissue flower making and other crafting at Self Help Graphics culminated in their annual El Dia de Los Muertos celebration last Monday. The community arts center and printmaking studio has a long history of celebrating the Mexican holiday for honoring the dead, reaching back thirty-six years to its first Day of the Dead celebration, involving just two artists who met at Evergreen Cemetery to remember their ancestors. In the years that have followed, the annual festival has grown and grown in size and popularity, with this year’s festivities moving from the Self Help Graphics to the East LA Civic Center.

                     

It's November and that means time to start holiday shopping. Here at LAist we encourage our readers to shop local, buy items that raise money for good causes, and celebrate the great things about our city.

Self Help Graphics holds the 36th Annual Dia de los Muertos Celebration at the East LA Civic Center tonight from 5-11 pm. The event features children's art workshops, art and crafts vendors, elaborate altars and local food. Guests will also enjoy a day of the dead fashion walk, live music from top local performers including Killsonic, L'Esprit d'Africque, Ollin, La Santa Cecilia and surprise special guests. One of evening's highlights a traditional public procession featuring people of all ages in colorful calavera face paint and attire. Also: Our guide to Dia de los Muertos events around the city.

Whether you're celebrating Dia de Los Muertos (LAist Event Guide) or nursing a serious day-after Halloween hangover, one way to take away the sting and take part in a cultural tradition is to sip on some Sangrita. No, not Sangria--don't confuse this tomato-citrus-spice sipping drink with the fruit infused wine of tapas bars and lazy summer days. In fact, the Sangrita itself doesn't contain alcohol; it's meant to be sipped alongside a shot of Tequila.

OK, so Halloween is over, no more dressing up and having fun. Wrong! The fun never stops! Dia de los Muertos in Los Angeles means days of face-painting, music, giant puppets, sugar skulls and even special bread. So get out there and let the celebration continue!

                     

This Saturday evening was the 10th annual Dia de Los Muertos event held at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The celebration, with roots deep in Aztec and Mexican tradition, is a 9-day-long festival honoring the lives of the departed through decoration, the erection of colorful shrines, dance, costume, and processionals.

Today Hollywood Forever Cemetery will hold its 10th annual celebration of Dia de los Muertos from 4pm to 11pm. Dia de los Muertos is an ancient Aztec tradition. On Dia de los Muertos it is believed that the veil that separates the living from the dead is lifted, allowing visits from departed loved ones. It is a celebration, not a day of mourning. Altars are erected with images of the dead, their favorite foods, marigolds, calaveras and paper cut-outs to welcome the dead back home.

       

We’re only a few weeks past summer and Southern California is already doing a pretty good impression of fall this week, with record lows hitting some cities. But even if the heat comes back later in the month, as we all know it almost certainly will, the spirit of the season in East Los Angeles won’t be deterred, no matter the weather.

                            

Sunday, November 3rd, Self Help Graphics in East LA held one of Los Angeles' most entertaining and visually exciting Dia de los Muertos festivals. It could even be argued that Self Help, which started out in 1970, was instrumental in reviving the once-obscure holiday of Dia de los Muertos. This year was their 35th annual festival.

                     

Sunday was the final evening of the Olvera Street Merchant's Dia de los Muertos celebration. It seemed like the entire city showed up, crowding the narrow streets and gazebo. Blessings were given in the street center, cleansing the faithful with smoke that billowed from small clay pots. Shops sold sugar skulls, mariachis played, and the lines at taco stands grew as the hour of the procession neared.

          

This weekend there have been several events open to the public for celebrating Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), which honors those who have passed away through the creation of colorful altars and costumed processionals. Two major celebrations were at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Saturday night, and on Olvera Street from the 25th through tonight. Our LAist Featured Photos pool contributors shared with us via Flickr some amazing images from the festivities. There's still stuff happening through this afternoon and into tonight, too, if you want to take part!

There's already a ton of cool post-Halloween and pre-Election Day things to do on this Daylight Savings eve, but to top it all off, today is the day that many celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Vibrant and elaborate altars are built to honor loved ones who have passed away, and the event is focused on celebration, not mourning, although one of the chief motifs is indeed calaveras (skulls). Traditions vary from family to family and community to community, but if you'd like to participate in the festivities, there are many large-scale events going on around town today and tomorrow.

November 1st and 2nd are the days set aside to celebrate Dia de los Muertos. Originally celebrated in Mexico, it is becoming increasingly common in Los Angeles. The origins of Dia de los Muertos have been traced back as far as Aztec festivals dedicated to the godess Mictecacihuatl. It is now celebrated on the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. It is believed that during this time it is easier for souls to travel back to earth to visit their loved ones. Altars with offerings and refreshments are set up to encourage a soul to visit and to provide sustinence and rest after their long journey back.

        

When visiting the pumpkin carver at Disneyland, we caught their Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, display. The festival celebrates the reunion of dead relatives with their families. Disneyland commemorates the holiday with a display of skeletons and flowers set up near Rancho del Zocalo Restaurante in Frontierland.

Perfect for the season, the Screamfest Horror Film Festival brings you a wide variety of horror and sci-fi works. Tonight's feature is titled Splinter, where we find a couple trying to evade a parasitic creature while making their way through the woods after being carjacked. Festival runs through October 19th.

Do you Lucha? The madness returns in February. A couple more short clips after the jump....

Although some Dia de los Muertos events were held last weekend, most notably Hollywood Forever and Festival de la Gente, most events will take place on November 2nd, following the traditional date.

Olvera Street's Novenario has all of the pageantry and all of the colorful calaveras characters as similar Dia de los Muertos events, but there is something more. Something sacred. The rituals honoring the dead combine Catholic and indigenous blessings, bringing a solemnity to the occasion. The traditional pre-Columbian Novenaria (nine-night) procession is a traditional ceremony to remember deceased loved ones. It is a moving experience, even more poignant this year because the merchants lost two of their own. As participants lift pots of burning copal incense to the sky, we all remember someone, and even those who do not pray send a silent message to those we have lost.

LAist knows there is nothing new in the least about Olvera Street, as it happens to be one of the absolutely oldest parts of town. But we're hedging our bets that maybe it's been some time since you took a stroll down its cobbled street, or maybe you've never been at all. These days are full of long hours of sun, and energy that's just about the perfect level for something as leisurely as meandering, or roaming. We like to roam downtown, because there are so many pockets of places that, when you aren't right in the midst of them, you can forget they exist. It takes an unexpected afternoon's walk to put you right in the middle of fantastic colors, sounds, and smells. And by smells, in the case of Olvera Street, we mean tasty food smells, although we issue the caveat that once downtown, you may be assaulted with more unpleasant smells. Such is life. But we've gotten off track...