Remembering the #dead is part of #human #cultures across the planet, and the #traditions come in many different shapes and forms. While there are many things I do not like about religious institutions, I do like #rituals and feel there is a need for these in our ever-changing lives. In particular, the ones celebrating the Day of the Dead. I love the way Mexico on November 2nd is celebrating the Dia De Los Muertos. It's my favourite. It is full of colour, joy, coming together, and it feels more like a party. One day I hope to be there and celebrate it with my dear friends.
In Romania, we have it on November 1st. As children, we observed every year as #family members would clean, prepare, and garnish the #graveyard with flowers and candles for the afternoon mass when the priest would do whatever priests do. We didn't pay to much attention to that. There are more important things to do such as: to see distant family members, chat, gossip, check the competition, flirt with the boys in my teenage hood, and of course remember the dead. A #traditional dish would be waiting for us home after hours of standing in the mud and cold. Bliss.
Here is a photo of the graveyard from last year celebrations, where my grandparents and other family members are buried.
Talking about death and dead people is not macabre or depressing. It makes me #live with even more# passion. Nothing like seeing where each of us will end eventually, to make me feel #grateful for being #alive. Of course, I feel #sad and miss my family members, and this year even more.
However, this Sunday, November 1st we will make a shrine with family #photos, #flowers and #candles, in our living room. We will think about each of them, feel sadness and remember them through the #songs they loved. So it's going to be an eclectic playlist, from Danish folk, gipsy music, Toto, Enrique Iglesias, and romantic Romanian 1930's songs. I will bake something sweet made of dough and fried in oil, that soothes the #heartache. I will share a glass of #palinka (Romanian/Hungarian 50% strength drink) that will kill all bugs on the way. It's an inner gut sanitiser. My favourite songs are Kalashnikov (Goran Bregovic), Bubamara (Dr Nele Karajic), and I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor), all of which I think would be just the right thing to be remembered for.
I wish you all, whatever you do and where ever you are a gentle, loving Day of the Dead.
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