intercultural exchange

halloween is an important holiday in my family. i am not sure when/how this came about, but i have distinct memories of halloweens from my childhood (including annual halloween parties at our house complete with a crazy scientist (dad) and craft sessions (mom)) and it has continued to be a favorite holiday as i have grown up. for example, in college, i used to get halloween gift boxes from my parents - complete with halloween decorations of various types, things to share with my roommates, etc. etc. i am the only person i know who gets regular halloween gifts from my parents (including this year, sent with my father).



[this year's was a bat mobile!]


the past three years have seen no carved pumpkins, no costume, not much of anything. but i bring halloween decorations with me wherever i go, including this year, with my halloween confetti (ghosts, spiders, pumpkins), some monster glasses, etc. and this year, in my own house, if i could manage to track down a pumpkin, i definitely wanted to at LEAST carve pumpkins with iván (who has never carved a pumpkin before. thankfully, being in la paz, we are close enough to the US border to have some spillover of US culture, and they import some "halloween pumpkins". i came home from work one day to find the house decorated with bats, balloons, and two pumpkins ready for carving ... hooray!





[iván]




[me]


halloween coincides with día de los muertos here in mexico (31 oct and 2 nov). it is traditional for día de los muertos for each family to create an ofrenda (offering) to their ancestors. usually this involves a photo of the loved one(s), pan de muertos, candles, fruit, flowers, and candy calaveras (skulls) to represent each person living in the house (it can be quite elaborate). the idea/belief/tradition, is that on the night of the first, you leave out the food and the candles burning all night and your ancestors visit and dine with you.







i really appreciate how other cultures celebrate their dead and recognize them in this way. i remember back a few years ago to all saints day in the philippines where i went with my host family to the cemetery and we spent the day there, eating, talking, laughing, and spending time with their ancestors. families in mexico do this as well, but they have this additional tradition of the ofrenda.

it is hard for me to describe my emotions, while setting up our ofrenda ... i am not sure if i actually believe that the souls of our ancestors come to visit and share food with us, but i ... like the tradition. the action of remembering. and i like that it is something that i can share with iván, that is part of his culture.

and what i really enjoyed was this mix of ourselves - my halloween and his día de los muertos. and our ofrenda complete with carved pumpkins.





in la paz, there is an annual festival de muertos at the theatre of the city. they have shows, skits, dances, and contests for the best catrina (skeleton) and ofrendas. the evening we went was the procession of the catrinas and they walk around and you can take pictures with them, see the different styles of ofrendas, and eat tamales de mole (yum!).

the skits are fabulous - very funny and clever.

here's a video (with translation provided below):






el obrero gana el pan con el sudor de su frente
para que sus hijos comen aun que no lo suficiente
mientras muchos abusivos viven violando las leyes
ganando lo que ellos quieren por andar haciendo bueyes

the worker earns bread from the sweat off his back
so that his children can eat although it is not sufficient
while many abusers lives violating the laws
earning what they want even being asses

must love fall holidays. on to thanksgiving :)