BEAUTIFUL MASK DESTINATIONS

Masks can make death come to life, transforming sorrow and pain into beauty and joy. The Mexican death trinity holidays of Day of the Dead, Catrina Calavera (Skeleton Dame), and Santa Muerte (Saint Death) are when these masks are in their glory.

Photo: Courtesy of Devicat.

This ancient holiday is celebrated in places where Christianity and indigenous cultures intersect for millions of North and South Americans, in complex rituals that confront and transcend mortality.

 

People celebrate with the dead, who are considered to be present and among them. It's a time to reconnect with deceased friends, family members and ancestors and share happy times again. The dead and the living party hardy together, often in graveyards.

Photo: Courtesy of Travelhouse UK.

This is a very decorative holiday. The masks are designed as especially elaborate skulls, called calaveras. Some are painted right on bare faces, some are sculpted, with jewels and flowers. Their aesthetic is a magnificent macabre.

Photo: Alison Bastie. Marigold flowers with magenta mano de leon.

Trails of marigolds (cempasúchil) decorate surfaces everywhere, because their scent is said to attract the dead. Symbolic banquets, spread across homemade altars, called ofrendas, serve the deceased spicy food and lots of tequila.

Photo: Courtesy of Wikipedia. Decorated Skull made of sugar.

Sugar skulls, calaveras de azúcar, are mini edible versions of the skull mask. The skull confections, like the masks, are adorned with the names of deceased relatives. They are eaten as a reminder that death isn't the end, but rather a sweet transition, part of the natural cycle of life.

Photo: Courtesy of Taringa.

It’s the 100th anniversary of the death of Jose Guadalupe Posada, the cartoonist who created Catrina, the Skeleton Lady. Originally meant to satirize the class wars in Mexico, Catrina became the idolized icon of Day of the Dead. Hers is the face that all Day of the Dead masks are patterned after.

Photo: Courtesy of Yucatan Holidays. Catrina Sugar Skulls

While people love to express their creativity in their masks, and the variety here seems endless, the masks all share the same Catrina style gene pool. Check out our post tomorrow, Wonderful Paint-on Masks, for a beautiful video demo of how you can paint a Sugar Skull Catrina mask onto your own face.

Image: Courtesy of the National Museum of Mexican Art.

Giant replicas of Posada’s artwork and illustrations will be on display, along with skeleton statues, in the Mexico City’s main plaza.

 

You can travel beyond the capital’s boundaries to find colorful Day of the Dead celebrations in small towns and villages across Mexico.

Photo: Bixaorellana. Day of the Dead celebrations in Oaxaca 2013.

One of the best places to celebrate the festivities of Día de los Muertos is in Oaxaca CIty. They begin the last week of October, with the commencement of the “Plaza de los Muertos.” People rejoice in anticipation that their deceased relatives will return on November 1st and 2nd.

Photo: Jesse Means. Oaxaca Day of the Dead Altar.

Since you are alive, you’ll need to eat! Try some Oaxacan mole, nicuatole (corn jelly), pumpkin with black sugar, sugarcane, tejocotes (small wild apples), pan de muerto (bread of the dead), and the exquisite stone-ground chocolate.

 

Photo: Marcin Porwit. Oaxaca Day of the Dead

 

During the days, you can rest and reflect. During the nights you can dance with the dead.

Candlelight processions, called comparsas, and Mariachi bands move through the streets and circle the altars set up throughout the town.  

Photo: Matt Whitmire.

If you’d rather stay stateside, celebrate Day of the Dead in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Saul Hernandez, the legendary vocalist and former lead singer of the bands Caifanes and Jaguares will hold court in The Magical World of Alebrijes -- this year’s theme. Alebrijes, the brightly colored fantasy folk art creatures, are Mexico’s answer to Netsuke.  

Photo: Matt Whitmire.

If you need to connect with a more modern experience this weekend, you’ll find some killer Catrina masks at HardFest, one of the biggest EDM festivals in Southern California, glow sticks light up the sugar skulls here as the dead dance with epic techno legend Giorgio Moroder, Skrillex, and Deadmau5, among others.

Photo: Courtesy of the Spot Route Setting.

Read about Beautiful Masks all this week, as they relate to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact, including The Top 10 Most Beautiful Masks, Is This Really Happening?, Behind the Masked Fruit, and Incredible Mask Art Now.

 

Get busy and enter the BN Competitions, Our theme this week is Beautiful Masks. Send in your images and ideas. Deadline is 11.03.13.

Photo: Courtesy of InterActiveMediaSW.

Also, check out our special competition: The Most Beautiful Sound in the World! We are thrilled about this effort, together with SoundCloud and The Sound Agency. And we can’t wait to hear what you’ve got!