LoveYou2 Dia de los Muertos Altar - San Francisco 2013
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I was thrilled to be one of this year's commissioned altaristas at the Marigold Project's Dia de los Muertos celebration in San Francisco Mission District's Garfield Park. My altar design included wood love notes, small altars attached to the fence, a modern twist on the marigold and flower altar arrangements is a vertical succulent garden adorned with candles and paper love notes written by my neighbors, online contributions, and Ms. Arroyo's 4th grade class. A table with love notes, pens and clothespins was set up nearby with an invitation for attendees to participate.
Join me creating this love note altar. If you are so inspired, write a love note to someone who has gone to the other side, to someone living, or to yourself and add it to the fence with a clothespin. You are also welcome to place mementos or remembrances on the altars.
At funerals, in obituaries, or in newspaper accounts following public deaths there are poetic, often profound tributes to the dead. This is particularly true in a death or loss that is untimely or too soon. I often wonder if these beautiful testimonies were spoken aloud or put in writing while both parties were alive. After I lost my brother two years ago to suicide, the ritual of speaking with the dead – giving myself a chance at redemption and an opportunity to send my brother well on his journey via love note writing – has offered healing. In my daily practice as a mom, artist, friend I look for ways to acknowledge via love notes the large and small ways I appreciate those around me.
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In the Dia de In the dia de los Muertos tradition, comfort items are left out to invite the dead back to dance. A can of crushed pineapple for my brother, his favorite treat as a child. A tea cup for my grandmother. A map for my grandfather.
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Traditionally, a mirror is placed on the altar for checking your good looking self upon arriving back with the living.
Throughout the day and into the evening, hundreds and then thousands of people visited the altar. Dear friends of the LoveYou2 mission volunteered and brought a feeling of reverence to the event as they tended the altar and witnessed the exchanges of love.
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As the day turned to night, there was a sacred feeling at the corner of 25th and Harrison. This had become a true shrine. Even when the sidewalk filled to the point you had to take your turn to walk, there was a hushed tone and respect among the visitors.
They came to witness. Some came to remember. Others to heal themselves. I see you. You are not forgotten. You are here. We are with you.
Video photo montage of the altar and some of the hundreds of love notes.