November 2, 2009

Day of the Dead or El Día de los Muertos

I stumbled upon a special Halloween/Day of the Dead event at El Museo del Barrio late on Saturday afternoon way uptown at 5th Avenue and 104th Street. There were loads of kids in costumes and a marching band and treats for the kiddies and face painting and lots of other fun stuff for everyone. All of the employees had great costumes and their faces were 1/2 painted in these colorful scary designs that reminded me of those little Mexican skeletons. Day of the Dead celebrations generally focus on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died, but this seemed a lot more fun and upbeat than that.

My Halloween was a really great day and finding this unique event totally capped it off. One other thing that I can't forget was that inside, as I was waiting for the band to come out of the auditorium, (watch video here) I noticed that they had a couple of large woven baskets filled with this exceptionally tasty cinnamon bread that is traditionally eaten on this holiday. It's called Pan de muerto which I think literally means Bread of the Dead and they were offering pieces of it for free. I took two pieces!

8 comments:

Di said...

I liked this face painted. I'm Mexican (as you can notice maybe because my English, I still working on it)and I know El Pan de Muertos is so good!

Christopher said...

Hola Di! Una cerveza por favor.

I'm working on my Spanish. I'm happy to hear you like El Pan de Muertos. I need to find someone who can bake it. It's great. Thanks for your comment.

Frank said...

Great photo. Perfect for the camera. It helps that you found such photogenic "dead" to capture. I remember the museum back in the late seventies. Very good photography shows. The tasty cinnamon treats such delicious.

Christopher said...

Thanks for the comment Frank.

Anonymous said...

Typical sights on this holiday I guess. Spanish tradition can be thought of something on a historical menu for history lovers. I would want to be seen here, but I probably would be an oddball.

Christopher said...

Oddballs are ok.

Anonymous said...

Day of the Dead is not the same as Halloween.

Christopher said...

Yes, I know that. But they were celebrating them jointly at this event. And most people in America couldn't care less.