Bring Out Your Dead

Painted Face

Our last night in San Miguel de Allende was November 1, 2017, All Saints Day in the Catholic calendar. As we noted in our Mask Museum blog post, Spanish priests co-opted indigenous native customs regarding Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) to align with All Saints and All Souls Days.

Commercial interests and local habits over time have converted Día de los Metros into a secular street festival. In SMA, for example, throngs of skeleton painted-face people mingle with their more mortally adorned amigos in an air of cosmopolitan festive celebration.

Grave in Catacombs

Based on recommenda- tions from full time SMA expat residents, we signed up for a tour this evening with a highly recommended tour guide. The tour included a 30 minute orientation lecture, a visit to the catacombs beneath La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel (opened only during Día de los Muertos celebrations), a look at modern day crypts at the Church of San Francisco (Iglesia de San Francisco) and a walking tour to a local cemetery.

The tour was a bust! We had anticipated an English guided tour providing a behind the scenes understanding of the historical and current cultural significance of Día de los Muertos. Instead, we encountered a long-winded Spanish language "lecture" with English translation provided by Jesus on the history of SMA cemeteries and other historic academic tidbits. We did indeed visit the locations noted in the tour's description only to continue the long-winded Spanish to English lecture, which of course, took twice as long because of the translation. The worst part was at the end, we were left at a cemetery about 10 blocks from where we started and we had to find our own way back. In the dark. On cobblestone streets. On Day of the Dead. Eek!

Some tours are better than others.

Altar at El Jardin

Nonetheless, the day was not lost. In the evening, El Jardin (The garden) in the center of historic SMA was jumpin' and jivin'. Elaborate altars constructed of flowers, beans and other natural material surrounded the outer perimeter of El Jardin.

Street vendors were selling wares, restaurants were serving drinks and a short musical parade of skeleton faced-painted revealers strode down San Francisco Street.

And to add to the general sense of festival, kids in Halloween costumes mingled in the crowd collecting candy or coins from those more attuned this festival's newer rituals.

It was a great evening, but we needed to head home to complete our packing for an early departure from San Miguel de Allende to Oaxaca City the next morning.