The 23rd Annual Día de los Muertos festival at Hollywood Forever returns October 29th 2022.
“Dia de los Muertos”, Saturday October 29 2022 will be divided into day and evening session".
More information at LADayoftheDead.com
(WestHollywoodToday.blogspot, October 18 2022, Photos by Karen Ostlund from rehearsal at Hollywood Forever Cemetery)
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| Presenters of LADayoftheDead 2022 at Hollywood Forever. |
“Dia de los Muertos” tradition holds that the dead return to earth to visit their living relatives, which can be traced to Aztec people in central Mexico.
The Aztecs used skulls to honor the dead a millennium before the Day of the Dead celebrations emerged.
November 2nd is an official public holiday in Mexico. November 1st honors deceased children and November 2nd honors deceased adults.
Dia de los Muertos is one of Mexico’s traditional holidays reuniting and honoring beloved ancestors, family and friends.
It's believed that although these relatives can’t see them, they can feel them.
It's a night is an important feast and when family members share memorable stories that evoke the lives of their ancestors.
It's an ancient ritual when the living commune with the dead – a mystical night when the veil is lifted between their two realms and they may share a day together. The historical roots of this celebration date back to the pre-Hispanic cultures of Meso-America of the indigenous people, especially the Nahua (Aztecs, Mayans, Toltecas, Tlaxcaltec, Chichimec, Tecpanec) and others native to Mexico more than 3,000 years.
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| Aztec dancers at Hollywood Forever cemetery rehearsing for Oct.29. |
The 2022 theme will be, Mayahuel – The Maguey Goddess:
Mayahuel is the Aztec Goddess of Fertility, the Maguey (Agave), and the ruler of the 8th day and the 8th year. She brings us Love, Magic, and Transformation. She has dominion over Earth, the Night Sky, Hallucinations, and Intoxication: The Centzon Totochtin, 400 Drunken Rabbit Gods are her children.
Mayahuel’s ancient gifts of the Maguey to the Aztecs included food, shelter, drink, medicine, soap, cloth, thread, needle, baskets, blankets, and paper. Her thorns were used as ritual bloodletting instruments.
Psychologists lately confirm what the Aztecs always knew: Mayahuel eases our grief and comforts our miseries with her gifts of Mezcal and pulque, the transformative foaming “honey water”, sometimes containing mushrooms, consumed by the Aztecs during spiritual ceremonies and festivals, agricultural blessings, weddings, and fertility rites.
One of Mayahuel’s legends begins when Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god, falls in love at first sight with her as he ascends to the Heavens to battle her evil grandmother, Tzitimitl, a celestial monstress swallowing light into swirling darkness and feeding on the souls of human sacrifices.
Infuriated by the sparks of their passion, evil Tzitimitl pursues the Lovers back to Earth and upon discovering Mayahuel disguised as a tree, rips her granddaughter into a thousand shreds.
Grief stricken, Quetzalcoatl kills Tzitimitl, gathers Mayahuel’s scattered remains and buries them. Heartbroken, he stands guard at her grave as his tears fall on the remains of his murdered beloved. Touched by his sorrows, the other gods add hallucinogenic mushrooms to his pulque to comfort him.
Fed by his tears and their enduring love, the first Maguey (agave) plant sprouts on Mayahuel’s grave. The sweet sap of the agave is evermore the blood of the Goddess – producing pulque and mezcal to forever lesson our miseries and lift our grief.
This Día de los Muertos 2022, we acknowledge the griefs and miseries of recent years as we gather celebrate the Gifts of Mayahuel and summon better days.
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| Inspiraciones de Danza Mexicana |
Dia de los Muertos at Hollywood Forever, October 29, 2022:
DAY SESSION 9AM GATES OPEN – 3PM EVENT ENDS
THE DAYTIME EVENT FEATURING A CHILDREN’S PLAZA AND CULTURAL PERFORMANCES, AS WELL AS ALTARS, ART EXHIBITIONS, AZTECS, FOLKLORIC DANCE, TRADITIONAL DANCE, CHILDRENS PLAZA, ARTS AND CRAFTS VENDORS, AND CULINARY VENDORS.
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| Ray of Light Art face-painting at Hollywood Forever. |
CHILDREN’S PLAZA
Bob Baker Marionette Theater 10am • 11am • 12pm • 1pm • 2pm
Story time with Lil’ Libros 10:25am, 11:25am
Chocolate making workshop for altar offerings by LA Plaza de Cultura, Art Curator Ximena Minotta Martin.
Latinx with Plants by Andi Xoch – Latinx With Plants invites you to honor your passed loved ones by potting a plant in your very own decorative pot, face painting, food, arts and crafts vendors.
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| ALTARS EXHIBITION, many spectacular altars viewable throughout the event. |
MAIN STAGE
Inspiraciones de Danza Mexicana
Estevie
Grupo Folklorico Cielito Lindo
Folklor Mexicano Cielo Rojo
Tradicion Dance Company
Neiya Arts
The Mijas Danza Xicana
Grupo Folklorico Sabor De Mexico
LA CATRINA STAGE
Ampersan
Camila Lima y Ruy Folguera
Laurie Muniz
Martin Espino
AZTECA STAGE
Danza Azteca Cuauhtli
Músicos Prehispánicos
Calpulli Tepeyollotl
Grupo Folk Misantla
Telpochcalli Coyolxauhqui
Tezca Ollin Totiani
Nahui Ollin
Chinelos
Xipe Totec Danza Mexica
Danza de Diablos y Rubios
Cajupame USA Juego de Pelota
Cinco Águilas Vuelan
Danza de Tlahualiles
Danza de Tecuanes
CATHEDRAL ART EXHIBITION
Featuring the work of Artist of the Year, Sabino Guisu’s “Zapotec Death Poems” @sabinoguisu
Sabino Guisu (Juchitán, Oaxaca). The work of Guisu, offers a vision of transculturation and spiritual rupture that exists between the individual and his environment, achieving a deep personal reflection. The geometric patterns found in the ruins of Mexican pyramids appear regularly in his work, death and chance are themes to which he always returns.
Krisztianna Ortiz • William Cervantes • Norma Rivera • John Galan • Patricia Anders • Inoe Vargas • Barbara Rivera • Karla Wong • Eriberto Aguilera • Sergio Rodriiguez.
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| Aztec dancer |
CEREMONIAL PROCESSION at 11am, starts at Main Gate, proceeding through cemetery, returns to Main Gate.
CULINARY VENDORS
Evil Cooks
Mikey's Tacos
The Tamale Fiesta
Me Gusta
L.A. TACO and Tacos Don Cuco
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| Tacos Don Cuco. |
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| TITO's Vodka at Hollywood Forever. |
Noche de los Muertos, Hollywood Forever, October 29 2022:
EVENING SESSION 5PM GATES OPEN – 12AM EVENT ENDS
THIS IS AN EVENING EVENT FEATURING MUSICAL ARTISTS, AS WELL AS ALTARS, ART EXHIBITIONS, AZTECS, TRADITIONAL DANCE, CULTURAL PERFORMERS, ARTS AND CRAFTS VENDORS, AND CULINARY VENDORS.
MAIN STAGE
Ed Maverick
Hermanos Gutiérrez
Son Rompe Pera
Thee Sacred Souls
EL FANDANGO STAGE
Son Cache
Alebrijes en Vuelo
Incienso Mulato
Super Jem
Armija
Cunao
Ballet Eterna Juventud
Alas de Mujer
AZTECA STAGE
Danza Azteca Cuauhtli
Músicos Prehispánicos
Calpulli Tepeyollotl
Grupo Folk Misantla
Telpochcalli Coyolxauhqui
Tezca Ollin Totiani
Nahui Ollin
Chinelos
Xipe Totec Danza Mexica
Danza de Diablos y Rubios
Cajupame USA Juego de Pelota
Cinco Águilas Vuelan
Danza de Tlahualiles
Danza de Tecuanes
CATHEDRAL ART EXHIBITION
Featuring the work of Artist of the Year, Sabino Guisu’s “Zapotec Death Poems” @sabinoguisu
Sabino Guisu (Juchitán, Oaxaca). The work of Guisu, offers a vision of transculturation and spiritual rupture that exists between the individual and his environment, achieving a deep personal reflection. The geometric patterns found in the ruins of Mexican pyramids appear regularly in his work, death and chance are themes to which he always returns.
Krisztianna Ortiz • William Cervantes • Norma Rivera • John Galan • Patricia Anders • Inoe Vargas • Barbara Rivera • Karla Wong • Eriberto Aguilera • Sergio Rodriiguez
CULINARY VENDORS
Evil Cooks
Mikey's Tacos
The Tamale Fiesta
Me Gusta
L.A. TACO and Tacos Don Cuco
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| San Bartolo Mezcal at Hollywood Forever. |
THEME ART OF THE YEAR : Brandon Maldonado
Tickets and parking info at LADayofthedead.com
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