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Day of the Dead /Día de Muertos

Mexican face painting

Mexican face painting

bel mex 2 Mexico City is 6 hours behind Ireland, so a phone call at 2.30 in the morning here from my brother Charlie to say hi to my Mum woke us up and we were awake for the rest of the night! We had a busy day yesterday looking around the Zona Rosa where we are staying. We spent most of the day getting lost but we always found our way back to the hotel eventually!I have learned a few things about Mexico City so far:
1. It is big, busy and very noisy
2.The people here are very friendly but few speak English
3.They love to celebrate the Day of the Dead which happens next Sunday

Today after a lunch of very .very spicy tacos we wandered up to the Angel of Independence monument on Reforma Avenue where the Mexicans like to hang out on Sundays. It was amazing, there were thousands of people dressed as corpses and everywhere you looked there were queues of people waiting to have their faces painted. The idea seems to be to paint the face to look beautiful but then the painter adds some gruesome details, even very small babies had their faces painted.I decided to join a queue and a lady helped me pick a design from photos on her phone. The locals thought it was funny to see my face painted and they took a lot of photos with me. Later tonight there was a parade on the Avenue of thousands of people in their costumes, it looked amazing but it was too dark to get photos of it. I am off to bed now as I will be up early in the morning to bring the tapestries to the museum and to help the curator,Natale organise the exhibition . Thank you to everyone who has commented on the blog and who has texted and messaged us .
Isobel

gruesome face painter

gruesome face painter

10 Comments

  1. Maria Pizzuti-Reply
    26th Oct 2015 at 8:18 am

    Hi Isobel, You look like the authentic Catrina! Thank you so much for your reports. They makes me experience Mexico City through your eyes, which is great because I haven’t seen that part of Mexico yet.
    I am so glad that you are there for the preparation to the Day of the Dead, I always thought that it is a wonderful idea to remember the ones that are no longer with us not with sadness, but with a big celebration of the joy of everyday life. This is why I used to decorate Newman’s West with the themes of the Day of the Dead and build an altar every Halloween in Schull. Now you can tell me how to do it properly.
    Check out the Ofrenda: altars dedicated to the one that is remembered… full photos, flowers, candles, and the favourite food and drink of the loved one. There should also be a special bread on the altar called Pan de muertos and loads of…sugar skulls.
    Big hello to your Mum. Good luck with the museum today, and give my regards to Natalie and this time…get William to help! Being 400 years old is no excuse for slouching!!
    Maria

    • Scoil Mhuire-Reply
      27th Oct 2015 at 12:13 am

      Hi Maria,
      We had a great morning in the museum, they are very nice there and were really impressed with the tape-estries.Wesley is the person in charge of the exhibition , I helped put it in order and explained some things to him, we helped put the poles in and then he asked us to go so he could surprise us with the finished display tomorrow.The room is lovely and the director of the museum came in to see it also.
      Isobel

  2. Molly Wells-Reply
    26th Oct 2015 at 1:31 pm

    Hi Isobel, hope you are having a great time. Your face painting is fantastic! We all miss you. Molly

    • Scoil Mhuire-Reply
      27th Oct 2015 at 12:10 am

      Hi Molly,
      We are having a great time but Mexico city is huge and I am walking miles everyday, my Instgram isn’t working on my phone so I can’t contact any of you.
      See you soon,
      Isobel x

  3. Maria Pizzuti-Reply
    26th Oct 2015 at 2:42 pm

    By the way Isobel when your lovely photograph was taken in front of the angel de la independentia you were only a few steps away from a statue of William Lamport. He is inside the mausoleum and the entrance can be seen just behind you in the picture. Many wonder why he has such a pride of place ahead of other more known heroes responsible for mexican independence …but you know why!! He was the first who wrote a draft of the declaration of independence! I’m sure that if you present your William to the gentleman guarding the entrance to the Mausoleum he will let all of you meet the solid stone version of Guillén de Lampart (although he doesn’t have such a great head of hair like yours does) http://www.mexicomaxico.org/ParisMex/resumen.htm

    • Scoil Mhuire-Reply
      27th Oct 2015 at 12:07 am

      Hi Maria,
      We went into the mausoleum and could not believe it when we saw his statue in front of us! Of course his name was in Spanish but there is no photography allowed inside for security reasons and it was a little like a haunted house as it was so dark!

  4. 26th Oct 2015 at 4:15 pm

    Isobel, you are doing a great job. Love the blog and Mum is not doing to badly with the camera either.

    • Scoil Mhuire-Reply
      27th Oct 2015 at 12:17 am

      Thanks Hilary, we are recording everything we see!Hopefully something good will emerge at the hands of a great editor.Mexico City is crazy and fascinating, noisy and vibrant and very very busy.
      Alison

  5. Ellen Logan-Reply
    26th Oct 2015 at 8:55 pm

    Sounds great Isobel hope Ya sleep well tonight enjoy big day tomorrow do schull proud

    • Scoil Mhuire-Reply
      27th Oct 2015 at 12:15 am

      Thank you Ellen, the change in time zone is difficult but Mexico city is brilliant, tomorrow is the big day!
      Isobel

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