DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

alter dedicated to Diego Rivera, Mexico City 1989.



Coinciding on November 1st and 2nd, with the Catholic holy days of All Saints' and All Souls' known as Todos Santose, the Days of the Dead are the most important religious obeservations of the year. Preparations begin moths agead of time, and as the weeks draw nearer, activity in the marketplaces swells as the artifacts and foodstuffs known to please the dead are consumed by the living.

In the Mexican psyche, there is no greater duty than to pay respect to the family dead. This tradition dates back to the time of the Aztec civilization, ingrained with beliefs in a mystical universe, where death was viewed, not as the end of existance, but a getaway to other levels. The eternal cosmic turbine spun with cyclical energy of life and death, lubricated with sacrificial blood. During the time of the Conquest, these pre - Colombian precepts became forged with the Christian canon of everlastiong, the perpetual exsistance of the soul after death.