Today Becky, Linda and I set up the communal Dia de los Muertos altar on the patio outside my loft. We wanted to have it ready in time for the coven's Samhain ritual here tomorrow night. We'll leave the altar up through November 2, as is the custom in my largely Hispanic neighborhood. And on November 1 and second, in particular, we'll welcome the ancestors home.
I still have yet to go buy a new bottle of Jameson's Irish Whiskey to set on the altar for the late Himself, my husband who's now been dead nine years. And I'll have to think of something to place on the altar that was a favorite of my son David's. We've set up pages where people can write the names of their Beloved Dead, and many of the novena candles we decorated last Sunday are now on the altar. Some of them bear the names of people who know who died this year. We have big vases of marigolds and celeosa, and a cloud of copal incense smoke is circling the altar. And we've stretched bright papel picado banners across the width of the patio.
I love this time of year of remembering those who came before us. We say "what is remembered lives," and I know the ancestors cannot but be glad to be remembered here this year. Here are a few quick-and-dirty photos I shot tonight without a tripod. I'll post some better ones later, but I was in a big hurry to get these up tonight.
ancestors remember Halloween Samhain dia+-de+los+muertos day+of+the+dead dead death memorial family Hispanic Oakland California Pagan Paganism