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Thursday, November 1, 2012

Dia De Los Muertos | Day of the Dead

A celebration of life....

Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de los Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout México and around the world in other cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it is a national holiday, and all banks are closed.

Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts. They also leave possessions of the deceased.

In most regions of México, November 1 is to honor children and infants, whereas deceased adults are honored on November 2. This is indicated by generally referring to November 1 mainly as Día de los Inocentes ("Day of the Innocents") but also as Día de los Angelitos ("Day of the Little Angels") and November 2 as Día de los Muertos or Día de los Difuntos ("Day of the Dead").  wikipedia 

 Welcome to the 3rd Annual Day of the Dead Hop hosted by my comadrita/BFF Abby
Hope you just arrived from the oh so talented Donna

I was really having a hard time coming up with something for this hop and the reason why is that on October 17 my aunt Lourdes passed away... and just less then 48 hours ago, my uncle (brother and sister) has also left this life....  My family is in mourning and as much as day of the dead is about celebrating their life, well, it is too recent and too hard...  As I was relating my feelings and memories of my super funny uncle to Abby, her reply was to share those stories even if I did not have a project... That made it easier for me to get going and create something! Sharing those memories just makes me start crying.... so here it is a layout of my Mom's side of the family.  Familia Barba.

I found this picture with all nine (one sibling passed away as a child before I was born) of my grand parent's children. La Familia Barba.
My aunt Lourdes passed away just this past Oct 17th and my uncle Arturo just what seems like a few hours ago...  They are both the second female and male starting from your right.

I was inspired by a post by Kerri Bradford here she teaches a class that I have not taken but just might.
The background looks a bit yellowish on the bottom left, but it is really crisp white.  Love white as a background because it keeps your attention on the photo.
 The traditional skulls are usually more colorful but I did not want it to distract from my photo.
Here I can see that yellowish thingy on the bottom left and it really is crisp white (much better in person, I promise!) I meant to write all of their names with their birth dates and respective information right under the word celebrate ...  but did not have them all and I needed to take pictures and create my post.  I will do that later tonight.  I will be typing the information on a piece of vellum.

Thanks for visiting and reading this lengthy post!

Giveaway  -  Abby will be giving away 4 prizes for commenting on all blogs and I will be giving two stamp sets to celebrate both my aunt Lourdes and uncle Arturo...  Itzel and Cualtzin pictured below.
 

Thanks for visiting! next is the super talented Patty Tanúz