Saturday, November 2, 2013

Bay Area Goth Meetup: Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)

And another meetup group event, Dia de los Muertos at the San Jose Museum of Art!  Although we did have a good time, this would have been much more fun if 1) we'd actually been able to meet up with more of the members of our group, and 2) the museum was bigger.

Here are those of us who did actually meet up:





   

Cheryl's got skull-covered leggings, I've in my new sugar skull shirt and shredded pants, and Winter is wearing a skeleton dress and carrying a ribcage purse.  Very appropriate outfits, wouldn't you say?  ;-)

Here are a couple of lobby sculptures that were created (apparently) just for this event:

 

We heard from two other people who were coming later, but never met up with them.  It was MUCH too crowded to see anyone, and no one but us looked the least bit goth!  Winter and I had our black parasols, but it was too crowded to open them, and we were inside the museum, after all.

The museum is fairly small, it was extremely crowded, and a large chunk of the lobby was kept open for the dancing and band performances, so once those started it was difficult to move anywhere.  There was a table to decorate your own sugar skull, but the line was a mile long.  :-(  We did get to see the dancing up close, though, which was good (although they were VERY late getting started).  And we didn't have to be in the same room with the mariachi band to hear it!!

If you'd like to see more pics, check out Winter's blog post

10 comments:

  1. You have great events for your goth meet ups. Pity it was to crowded for you to even get close to the sugar scull decorations.

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    1. This event was my idea, so thank you! :-) It WAS too bad it was so crowded; fortunately, I've got a really nice sugar skull at home, so at least I have one! Now if I could just remember where I stored it...

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  2. At least you got to meet up with some of your group; and what a good looking group it was, with all dressed appropriately!

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  3. Great idea Lucretia! this was fun despite the small museum and crowds. It made it worth while to see you and others :D

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    1. Thanks, and I TOTALLY agree! I'd love to hang out with you more! :-)

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  4. Sounds like a great idea for a meetup. I love the idea of Dia de los Muertos, of celebrating the lives of the dead with joy! I want to go to something like that someday, we have nothing like that in Australia!

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    1. Yes, that's the whole idea as far as I can tell, to "celebrate the lives of the dead with joy". Got it in a nutshell! :-) Families go to the cemetery and build altars in their family plots, but they also have picnics and play happy music there. It's a celebration for both the living and the dead to share.

      I've wondered before if the Australian aborigines do anything similar. I take it they don't, or you would probably know at about it?

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    2. Not that I know of. I don't really know that much about their customs, but I have heard that in some more traditional Aboriginal societies, you cannot mention the name or look at the image of a dead ancestor. Hence the warning on many Australian TV shows that the following program may contain voices or images of deceased Aboriginal people.

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    3. Thanks for the info on that! There are definitely some cultures that feel that way, and I'm glad they respect that on Australian TV. Sounds like a "Day of the Dead" thing would NOT go over well! But it doesn't mean that non-Aborigines can't do it if they want to. Maybe you can start something like it in your town. :-)

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