Last night we attended a “Dia de los Muertos” party in Malvern at Jim Frank’s house. It was fun, we met some new people.
We arrived around 7PM, brought some breaded chicken that Michael made, yummie! It went well with the chips, dips, salsa and quesadillas that were provided when we got there. Mmmm quesadillas.
About a dozen people showed up, the first couple hours were spent just chatting, eating and listening to mexican-style music (with some James Brown mixed in because it’s “good party music”). We also decorated an alter with candles, confetti, flowers and trinkets and photos from people that have passed. I didn’t bring photos or anything, but it was meaningful anyway, and really beautiful once it was all set up.
The big event of the evening took place at 9PM when we made our “tombstones” and buried ourselves. The “Tombstones” were just pieces of paperboard that we cut out and stapled to sticks, and then we wrote on them. The variety of what was written was interesting, some people were serious, writing their favorite quotes or dates of life-changing events, others were funny. I couldn’t help being part of the latter group, since I’ve done quite a bit of thinking seriously about mortality lately and I was using this night to celebrate with laughter and happiness. My tombstone said:
Elizabeth Ann Krumbach
“Oh no! There really is a God after all!”
*flames at the bottom*
Hahahaha! I crack myself up.
Once the tombstones were complete we went into the room with the alter and told each other what we could do “in remembrance of us” and then went out to stick our tombstones in the ground out front to “bury ourselves.” It was all very interesting, more so because none of us really knew what to expect when Jim said the plan was to “burying ourselves” and everyone was able to make up what they wanted it to mean for ourselves.
We left around 10:30. I wish we could have stayed and visited longer, but I was tired and I had to get up for work this morning and all that.