Day of the Dead Celebration: Journey to Mictlán

Mictlán symbolizes the eternal resting place of the dead/deceased. Join us for a celebration to boast the spirits and share the love with our loved ones on this journey with mariachi, a procession, dance performance by the indigenous dancers Nahuí Ollín, ofrenda altars, face painting, a serenade to our lost ones and more as we stay true to the tradition with local Mexican organizers

The Day of the Dead festival is a pre-Hispanic tradition full of symbolism, legends and stories that form a unique mosaic in the world, which represents us throughout the world for its duality of joy and sadness, we are a people that celebrate death with life, with songs, with food, with sweets and confetti, cultures are mixed and beliefs are sharpened these days.

November 1 and 2, where it is believed that the souls of the deceased return on those nights to enjoy the aromas of the dishes and flowers that their relatives offer them.

Day 2, on the other hand, is the so-called Day of the Dead, the maximum festival of its kind in our country, a celebration that begins at dawn with the ringing of church bells and the practice of certain rites, such as decorate tombs and make altars on tombstones, which have great importance for families because it is believed that they help several souls for each individual and that each one of them had a different destiny when they died.

Altars are also made in the houses where they offer food, flowers, and drinks that were to the liking of the deceased and the clergy, candles cannot be missing.

In Mexico, indigenous cultures conceived of death as a dialectical unit: the binomial life-death, which made death coexist in all manifestations of their culture. That its symbol or glyph appeared everywhere, that it was invoked at all times and that it was represented in a single figure, is what has kept its celebration and tradition alive over time.

On this day of celebration, we want to announce that our migrant community needs that path to Mictlán “the place of” rest “Everything, Mictlán means eternal place of rest for the dead, a place where we all want to arrive and there are many parallels with the search for Latino immigrants without documents, seeking to rest one day as American citizens.

Cristobal Cavazos says, “Beyond the good and the bad, the Aztec worldview sought balance. It is very similar to the balance that we seek in the community. In the US we want to pretend that death does not exist, but if we take into account that if it exists, everything around us would have more value, but above all the lives of our friends and family.”
Says Gabriela Hernàndez Chico, “I think just as our lost one’s struggle to reach Mictlán, much of our community struggles to reach lives of dignity and decency as US citizens after years battlling through the shadows.”

And Rafael Vieyra, “What carves the road to Mictlán is the love and solidarity. This gives our lost ones the power to continue on, and these celebrations give our community that soul-anchor and build that community that makes life less difficult. Ironically this love and community is what we seek to bring to the Elmhurst Museum as it is the true meaning of the Day of the Dead Celebration.”