Día de los muertos

Today Mr M and I were out leafletting cafes, shops and businesses to publicise our upcoming concert with my hispanic choir, El Coro. In Enmore (inner western suburb of Sydney), we found El Cuervo Cantina, a Latin American cafe and live performance venue, just as they were getting ready to start 3 days of celebrations for the Mexican 'Day of the Dead' (Día de los muertos). This honours and celebrates the lives of people who have died, and its origins are thought to date back at least 2,000 years in indigenous culture. You can read all about it here.

As is usual, there was a table decorated with photos of the people being remembered, and laden with food and drink & other offerings, figurines, a virgin Mary, candles, and flowers, especially marigolds, the tradition flower for this occasion. I took a photo of this table intending it to be my blip for today, and was just about to leave when I spotted this tequila-drinking pirate/mariachi/cowboy/skeleton, complete with marigolds sprouting from his head. I think it gives a better idea than the table/altar does of how the room felt - festive, colourful, loud, and just a little bit loco...

The children of the Latin American family that runs this cafe were all dressed up ready to go out trick-or-treating for Halloween.