I’m trying to add aspects of my own self and ethnicity into my practice, so I wanted to celebrate Dia de Muertos for the first time. I’ve never done any ancestor work, nor have I celebrate Dia de Muertos because that’s not something that the Mexican side of family does. It felt good to do for the first time, even if my attempts have been a little clumsy so far.
I wish I had more time to build something much more beautiful, but despite it's humble set up I still do this wholeheartedly. I put up this offering thinking of all the kids around the world enduring tragedy, all the Mexican kids, all the Palestinian kids, and all the children in Sudan and El Congo, and every other kid who has lost their life to senseless violence and war.
I welcome them all with open arms into our home to feel warmth, to enjoy the flowers and incense and colourful paper, and to fill their souls with food and toys and all the other beautiful things they deserve.
I mourn you, and I'm thinking of you every day.
We will carry this grief and it will remind us to fight for you.
i think the qsmp is a torture experiment and i would die. idk how any of the content creators are surviving any of this with the eggs. what do you mean theres a child you have to take care of but theres something actively trying to kill it and sometimes they die?
what do you mean some of the children are permanently gone and you get to see them once a year and never again?
Here, we honor and remember our ancestors. We have offerings for our ancestors on the ofrenda and put their pictures up to remember them. We put things that they liked or enjoyed. Such as pan dulce, candies, foods, or even cerveza, (beer).
The Zempoalxóchitl, (marigolds) flowers represent the sun and the beautiful road it's creates between here and Mictlán (the underworld).
Papel picado, or punched paper, represents the wind, but also decorates the ofrenda and helps make it beautiful for our ancestors.
Candles, represent fire, and light the way for our loved ones.
Water, represents the source of all life. We offer this to our loved ones to quench their thirst from a long journey to visit us.
Ofrendas will be different from family to family and no ofrenda will be the same. There really is no step by step process to make an ofrenda, rather think of the spirirts that will be visiting your house and what you would offer them after such a long journey. How would you want them to feel welcome.
At the same time you want to make sure all spiritual (and, with it, historical) parts of this belief are respected.
Understand that although this is part of a big festivity, most people are mourning loved ones and having an ofrenda is part of the painful process of mourning.