The NYC Parks Life and Death Celebration: Día de los Muertos is at the Hattie Carthan Saturday Market in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn on Saturday, October 26, 2019 from 12pm to 6pm. FREE
Day of the Dead ~ Día de los Muertos
Day of the Dead is a traditional Mexican way to remember deceased family members. There is nothing scary about it. The celebration blends Indigenous Aztec, Spanish colonial and U.S. American traditions into a celebration that is loved around the world today.
NYC Parks Life and Death Celebration
NYC Parks offers a family-oriented, earthy take on the Day of the Dead. They do one every year.
When I was a young child, I once asked my mother why the trees die in winter. She told me they don’t die, they just go to sleep and wake up in the spring. That’s a reasonably close description of how Indigenous Aztecs and contemporary Mexicans relate to the endless cycle of life and death.
Family is the core of Latin culture. Even when family members pass away, we still remember them because we expect to see them again, on the other side if you will.
NYC Parks sees it in a similar way too. They manage our parks through the endless cycle of seasons so we can enjoy them every year, all year long.
One of the central elements of a Day of the Dead celebration is making an altar with our family members’ favorite foods and offerings. Mexican marigolds are considered to be welcoming. It’s how we let them know that we remember them and want to be together again.
There will be a Day of the Dead altar and many other things for children.
There is West African drumming. Veracruz, the gateway from the Caribbean to the Mexican capital has an African community. The “Mexican” founders of Los Angeles, California were mostly Africans from Mexico.
There is pumpkin carving and face painting. Halloween face painting is a U.S. American tradition that blended into the Mexican Day of the Dead tradition, so much so that you expect it.
There is crystal skull making and garden tours. The Farmer’s Market has fall foods for sale as well.
This is the New York City way. We bring the traditions of our heritage, add them to the melting pot and share them with our New York family. We will always remember you.
For more information, visit www.nycgovparks.org