Dia De Los Muertos

In San Antonio, with the Hispanic culture so prevalent, a lot of people celebrate Day of the Dead. I love Halloween, which is the night before the Day of the Dead. Halloween is essentially the same thing-- a pagan celebration of the borderline between the land of the living & the dead being very thin. The feast of Samhain. Every year, for the past eight years, I've had a big Halloween party. They started out somewhat small-- just a dinner party for about 8 people, who I asked to dress up. That first year I envisioned us all trooping down to the Riverwalk and hanging out in bars. Other years, we did go to bars. One year, because a group of us accidentally all wore "medieval" costumes, we even were entered into a "group costume" contest. The winners of that group were a bunch of Wizard of Oz folks, complete with a great Glinda. Who could beat that? The parties grew to huge events-- I think we had maybe 40 people last year. It was great fun. There have been years (the Xena costume) when I have gotten really really shnockered. That year, I was a human Pez dispenser-- I put pez down my faux leather Xena bodice and pulled it down (exposing the girls of course) to give people a candy treat. Curse those Appletinis. I think that was the year I had to cancel class the next day and lie painfully on the couch all day. Really painfully.

Last year was more tame, with me being all knocked up and all. But it was still fun. I decorate the house something fierce, usually. You all have undoubtedly seen the photos. This year will be back to the earlier year's theme-- a dinner party in costume. About 11 people, mostly just the closest friends. I make a "Thanksgiving" meal-- turkey, stuffing, etc. In earlier years, I did the whole dinner (including oysters rockefeller--freshly shucked by me!!) one year. The years that it's a fifty-something group we just do appetizers & desserts. But this year, I'm doing a turkey & stuffing and asked the gang to bring the side dishes. It's going to be nice. The costumes for the Wells family reflect our new status as a foursome. The babies will be Thing 1 and Thing 2 (photos will follow, you can be sure). Andrew? Cat in the Hat of course. And me, I will be the disapproving Fish. (Easy costume-- it's just a silly hat!) But I'm looking forward to it. I just did up the decor a bit ago-- the babies are sleeping hard since they had a big day at the lake for their Grandpa's birthday. (I have a video function on my new birthday present camera-- so maybe you might get some video of the precious darlings one of these days soon).

Back to the day of the dead. I do an altar for the day... complete with Flores, Flores por los muertos (thanks Blanche DuBois)..... a cool Oscar-like statuette of a skeleton that Nissa bought me a couple years ago. Candles. A really pretty crucifix that an ignorant boyfriend bought me once (he thought it was a necklace I could wear....it is sterling silver & crystal though and very pretty!) And photos of celebrities who died in the last year. I always have a few easily recognizable ones. And then some that are somewhat obscure but cool to me. This year's list of dead folk on my altar: Pope John Paul II; William Rehnquist; Rosa Parks; Luther Vandross; Andrea Dworkin; Hunter S Thompson; Arthur Miller; Johnny Carson; James Doohan and my friend from high school, Julie M. I don't have a picture of Julie, so I just have her name. I'm always rather proud of my altar. I mean it in every way to be a tribute and a respectful use of the day's tradition.

Anyhoo. Going through the list of folks who died this last year always makes me go-- Hey, he/she died? Awwww man, I didn't remember that! And I don't do all the celebs-- only about 8 people (the picture frames I have set aside for the deal, which are only used for that nowadays....they used to have other pix in them but who knows where they went?)

So that's my day tomorrow. Have a good Halloween, and think of someone you knew who has "passed on" into the great question mark.