David Hochman writes regularly for Forbes Life and many other publications including The New York Times, Esquire, Parade, O Magazine, Playboy, Details, GQ, Town & Country, Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure and more.
You can read more about David at http://www.davidhochman.com; Hochman came to San Miguel for The Ultimate Day Of The Dead Experience, the following is his article for forbes.com
In travel, people love to hyperbolize about once-in-a-lifetime experiences but here’s one perhaps best described as once-in-a-lifetime-after-a lifetime. The Day of the Dead Fiesta in San Miguel de Allende, unfolding this week here in Central Mexico, is an epic celebration of the hereafter and then some, and it’s a destination event that’s been on my wanderlust to-do list for ages.
Day of the Dead in San Miguel de Allende is a weeklong celebration of those who’ve come before us. (Forbes.com)
My wife and I went all in for the adventure this year. We’ve been eyeing Dia de los Muertos the way people do when big birthdays are on the horizon, as they are for us, which translates as: Bring it on, skeleton parade! Let’s party like there’s no tomorrow.
In central and southern Mexico, Day of the Dead is a big-deal holiday celebrated on November 1 and 2 with fond remembrances of family members who’ve passed on. It coincides with All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day traditions within the Catholic church but fuses much older elements as well. Despite the macabre theme, the holiday is actually a joyful one as parades and performances on November 1 culminate at midnight. That’s when the gates of heaven are said to open to allow the spirits of deceased children, or angelitos, to mingle again with their families for 24 hours. The next night at midnight, the spirits of grownups return to celebrate, again amid lavish spectacle. Residents and visitors dress up in elaborate costumes, mostly in the guise of La Calavera Catrina, the female skeleton character inspired by etchings of early 20th-century Mexican cartoonist Jose Guadalupe Posada. La Catrina is an upper class sort, with a wide-brimmed chapeau — a reminder that death comes for all of us, rich and poor.
My wife and I went to Mexico and all we got was undead. (Photo: David Hochman / Forbes.com)
Source: http://www.forbes.com/
