Day of the Dead

On Saturday we attended a Day of the Dead festival at one of the local museums. We were quite surprised to find out that this museum also has a very nice Latin American cultural exhibit with lots of artifacts and history from Guatemala. We brought Ally's friend and classmate Erik with us and they both had a lot of fun.

Día de los Muertos is a Latin American holiday that celebrates ancestors. It is a celebratory holiday in which we remember our departed loved ones. There was an altar to commemorate children who had died, and Ally and I had a long conversation about death, dying, remembering. We were done and started to walk away when she said "wait...can we talk about this some more?" So we sat on the floor and repeated our conversation. We talked about my grandma no longer being alive, and that everyone would die sometime, usually, and hopefully after a long life, but sometimes children or adults get sick or have an accident and die before they get old. At one point Ally said "I am not going to die anytime soon" with such confidence and innocence of youth.

We have been hit with some difficult news recently, a very close friend, and fellow adoptive parent with 2 young daughters has been diagnosed with breast cancer, and the older brother of one of our Guatemala Girl's was diagnosed this past weekend with ALL (a form of childhood leukemia) and will be in the hospital for at least the next month undergoing treatment.

All of this has me feeling a bit shaken and so very grateful for our health and happiness.

The exhibit featured a variety of crafts for children - here Ally is working on a hat, and wearing her tissue paper flower.

The 3 of us with our hats.



Erik and Ally coloring their masks.

The masked friends!

It was definitely time for lunch and we headed outside for a picnic in the courtyard. I asked them to make silly faces at the camera. I think they look kind of angry - but I guess they do look silly.

They were so happy to be out in the fresh air, they chased each other around the tree and played for a while.

Then we went back inside to decorate our sugar skulls.

Sugar skulls represent a departed soul, and traditionally have the name written on the forehead and are placed on the home altar or gravestone to honor the return of a particular spirit. Sugar skull art reflects the folk art style of big happy smiles, and are very colorful.

It was a fun day.