Double Celebration..............

Mexico is celebrating a double whammy in 2010 - first the Bicentennial on September 16th marking 200 years of Independence, quickly followed very recently by the Centenary of the Revolution on November 2oth marking 100 years since the uprising by Zapata and the like.....

There have been parades, fiestas, events, shows, spectacles, dances, concerts, reenactments non-stop this year in a country already renowned for non-stop celebration - and the end is not yet in sight...........

What is currently being celebrated where you are right now???? For more global glimpses around the world this week, check out My World Tuesday by clicking here....Enjoy!!

Shadow Shot Sunday 78 - Oaxaca

We are all used to Grinning Death or The Grim Reaper casting his shadow over us, and making us shiver with presentiments of our own mortality, but here in Oaxaca on Day of the Dead, artists were turning the tables.....

and casting their own shadows over Death as they laboured to create the Giant Sand Paintings (los tapetes monumentales) for the Day of the Dead festivities in front of the Cathedral...

Such pieces of folk art depicting skulls, skeletons, bones and Catrinas are all typically part of the traditions in honouring the dead for this unique festival here in Mexico.These are particularly wonderful in their fragile transience and ephemerality. For more details about the step by step construction of these giant sand paintings see the previous post.......

For more fun with shadows around the world, click here for Shadow Shot Sunday....

The Magic Carpets of Oaxaca...

Oaxaca is a very special place - the heart and soul of Mexico - its ancestral, spiritual and cultural home. It is a place where all the traditions of Mexico are followed and the festivities of Mexico are celebrated, and when this is combined with Oaxaca as the city of artists and folk art, then this is the result - the Day of the Dead tapetes monumentales (giant carpets).....

Oaxaca is a wonderful place to witness all the amazing Day of the Dead celebrations, and central to those celebrations is all the folk art associated with the festival. In front of the cathedral this bicentennial year, there was an exhibition of five giant sand paintings to honour the dead , and I was lucky to see the process of constructing these contoured carpets from start to finish...

First the sand is poured into the frame, kept moist with watering cans so it can be easily moulded, and then gradually shaped by hand into the contours of skulls, skeletons, snakes, and bones. Initially the site looks like some kind of strange archaeological dig in reverse with bones being created instead of uncovered....

Powdered paints are applied to the contoured shapes in strict colour order - first white to literally create the skeletal framework of the images, then the primary colours reds, yellows, and blues, followed by the pastel colours pinks, lemons and lilacs....

The colours are applied by sifting powdered paints through an ordinary household sieve, and the last colour to be added is always black....

Special attention is always paid to getting the details just right, especially the eye sockets and the teeth of the skulls....

Then the final touches are added, a few extra sprinkles from the sieve, getting all the tiny little details in place....

Then it is time to step back and admire the fruits of such artistic labour - six solid hours of hard labour - with these wonderful final results....

I felt so privileged to witness this extraordinary process from start to finish, and hope you enjoy this sequence of photographs which documents the different stages involved. For more windows on the world this week check out the My World Tuesday postings by clicking here....

Communing with Calaveras.....

Day of the Dead is a unique festival celebrated in Mexico from October 31st to November 2nd whereby loved ones who have departed this world are welcomed back for a night of festivities. First come the "angelitos" (souls of children) tempted back by sugar candy...

...and then it is the turn of the adult ancestors who are honoured with "ofrendes" (altars of offerings for the dead) containing their photographs and all their favourite foods and drinks and cigarettes all in a haze of candles, copal incense, marigolds and Calla lilies....

At the cemeteries all night vigils take place at the graveside with families holding a celebration for the return of their loved ones. Graves are meticulously scrubbed and decorated with fresh flowers predominantly marigolds and lit with candles to welcome back those who have departed. Wandering graveyard mariachi bands help with the summons...

The atmosphere is one of joyous and festive celebration, acknowledging the continuous circle of life and death, with not even a hint of morbidness. There are no taboos surrounding death in this country......

I have now celebrated five Day of the Dead festivals here in Mexico in Oaxaca, Patzcuaro, and Real de Catorce, and one in Nicaragua. It is such a special festival, I would not miss it for the world, and if you get a chance to visit during this time, then grab the opportunity of witnessing something unique. This year I was down in Oaxaca and will be posting soon about the "Tapetes Monumentales"!! In the meantime get more of a global glimpse this week by checking out the My World Tuesday postings. Click here. ...and as always enjoy!!

Viva Mexico - 200 Years!!

On Wednesday 15th September Mexico will be celebrating the Bicentennial - 200 years of Mexican Independence. The flags are out....

The roads are blocked, the fireworks are set, the decorations are up......

Now all we are waiting for is the traditional annual "grito de independencia" to get the biggest party in town started.....VIVA MEXICO!!

To see what else is happening around the world this week, click here for My World Tuesday postings - Enjoy!

Shadow Shot 59 - Cuetzalan

The courtyard of my posada in Cuetzalan was perfectly pretty and pleasing during the day...

but a little more spooky and threatening at night under the floodlights......

Why was the courtyard floodlit?? Because we were watching the Quetzal dancers, of course, whirling about on their wooden frame at breakneck speeds....

If the wonderful world of the culture of Cuetzalan is a little out of your reach today distance-wise, then why not nip over to Shadow Shot Sunday for some fascinating photography....

Mexican Masks at the Mayer....

Mexican culture has a passion for masks and being masked and so it is hardly surprising that another major exhibition of Mexican masks has opened last week at the Franz Mayer Museum.

¨Mil y un Rostros de Mexico" displays 520 masks from the collection which belonged to Ruth Deutsch LeChuga who originally arrived with her family in Mexico in 1939 fleeing from Nazi persecution in her native Vienna...

After her arrival in Mexico, she became extremely interested in the culture of indigenous peoples, and it became her life's work to build up collections of masks, textiles and artesan crafts..

The masks on display constitute a wide variety from different states and different celebrations and fiestas - all remarkable for their fierce intensity...

Her travels around the country in the fifties, sixties and seventies have resulted in a pretty comprehensive documentation of all these masks in use in the different fiestas and celebrations, often in remote parts of Mexico. This series of black and white photos are such an important contribution to retaining this history....

The exhibition continues at the Franz Mayer Museum in the Centro Historico until May 2nd. In the meantime check out what is happening in other parts of the world this week by clicking here for My World Tuesday postings.

Day of the Dead.....

Day of the Dead is the most special and unique of festivals here in Mexico, the time when ancestors and departed loved ones are honoured and remembered in the most wonderful of ways. Here is the Ofrende ( altar to the dead ) set up this year in the reception area of my school....

And here is the ofrende built by all our students, on the edge of the school basketball court, using all their own artwork and craftwork from recent classes....

Day of the Dead is marked by these beautiful ofrendes set up in every possible corner...

and by the flowers on sale everywhere. These are marigolds and other beautiful blooms for sale in the market in Patzcuaro, Michoacan.....

And this is how they are used to decorate the graves ready for the overnight vigils in the cemeteries - this one is Tzintzuntzan cemetery near Patzcuaro...

And the final image is of the sugar skulls and calavera candy sold on street stalls everywhere. These ones were for sale in the markets in Guanajuato...

Let's take one last look at that beautiful ofrende set up in my school today by our students...

This year I will be in Nicaragua for Day of the Dead and will be reporting back on how the festival is celebrated in this country. If you get a chance to witness this festival - Do not miss it!! For other global glimpses check out the My World Tuesday postings by clicking here.

Shadow Shot Sunday 31 : Happy Day of the Dead!!

This year I will be celebrating Day of the Dead in Granada, Nicaragua. This is one of my favourite festivals of the year, unique to this part of the world, and one certainly not to miss. The past four years, I have travelled to Patzcuaro twice, Oaxaca, and Real de Catorce to witness some of the most amazing all night graveyard vigils, so I couldn't resist posting this skeletal shadow shot today. He is waving out of a train carriage window as part of a grand Day of the Dead artisan exhibition in the Museo de Arte Popular. On Monday, I will be posting more Day of the Dead photos from the celebration at school this year, and from the past few years. In the meantime enjoy other shadow shots from around the world by clicking here for Shadow Shot Sunday.

Penitence, Prostrations, and Pilgrimages...

As Lent begins, so does the season of Pilgrimages and Penitence in Mexico, proving a constant reminder of the strength of ancient and religious traditions in this country, that are still so strictly and respectfully observed today. A frequent sight on the roads of Mexico right now are pilgrims on foot....

or travelling in huge convoys of highly-decorated, ancient trucks...

or even the modern family vehicle which will do the job just as well...

This particular group of pilgrims were passing through Tepoztlan last Sunday, on their way to the Sanctuary of "El Senor de Chalma" in Cholula, State of Puebla, and it is often this juxtaposition of old and new Mexico, cheek by jowl, that makes the country so fascinating. Take the Sanctuary of Atotonilco for example, which is a penitent shrine adorned with the most vibrant of folk murals, and just a ten minute ride from the upmarket shopping, gallery, and restaurant culture of hotspot San Miguel de Allende. Yet really it is a million miles away when you browse the market stalls outside with their penitent accessories of self-flagellation whips and cords...

and actual crowns of thorns to purchase...

For an atheist outsider, it can be hard to understand rituals that may appear on the surface Medieval. The pilgrimage season culminates in the traditions of Easter. On Good Friday in the grounds of the Templo de San Francisco in Tzintzuntzan, shackled, hooded, and chained penitents crawl on their knees to reach the church to pay homage to the much revered image of Christ. Devout worshippers were so convinced that they witnessed Christ's feet pushing against the end of the coffin, that a glass extension was added to the case.

The Good Friday Passion Play here at Tzintzuntzan, is extremely elaborate and realistic, and wholly convincing with a devout set of worshippers following the young man elected to play Christ for the day enduring real beatings and flagellation beneath the burden of the heavy cross..

These traditions are still the bedrock of life in modern-day Mexico, and I don't think I have ever lived in a country whereby the connections between past and present, ritual and change, old and new are so seamless ; indeed that connective thread has been severed in so many other places long ago...

For more windows on the world click here.