Día de Muertos 2025

Hola La Catrina

Día de Muertos on Detroit Road, and Gordon Square

Painting a face to be a holiday skull.

Xoloitzcuintli (Xolo), Mexican hairless dog has been in the Americas for thousands of years. Only dogs who carry the recessive gene are hairless, so some litter mates have fur, and some do not. In mythology they were created by Xolotl, the god of lightning and death. They had spiritual power in life and death, and were guardians of people. They were guides in the underworld, Mictlan.

esqueleto del conquistador, el gran destructor

Cleveland Public Theater anchored the celebration to the old Romanian Orthodox church, which is on their campus. Previously, the celebration was at different locations in the city, and in some years not at all. 

I enjoy this event, and am sorry i have not been able to catch more of it. This is generally the last outdoor event of the year i go to.

2024 Miscellany #16

 

November 2nd was All Souls Day, Day of the Dead, Dia de los Muertos

Here is an altar (ofrenda) in Cleveland for the Four Martyred Missionaries of El Salvador. Jean Donovan (St. Ann Cleve Hts), Sr. Dorothy Kazel (St. Robert Euclid), Sr. Ita Ford, Sr. Maura Clarke.

New revolving egg gate at Dike 14, not yet complete November 7th.

On Superior, they made 'viral' national news on their food, they have made local news over attempted robbery.

Driving north where the innerbelt ends on 90 there is an abrupt right turn, as if the civil engineers did not realise there was a big lake straight ahead.  We all call this 'dead man's curve'.  Now at the beginning of that turn there is a descriptive sign.

Karma with red maple leaves

great foto safari saturday morning

Had a two hour window for playing with the camera, this morning. This was almost the last foto of the day. This was on West 54th, near the shoreway. Behind the doe, a new downtown skyscraper is going up.

On the other side of town, we went to see the new statue that was installed yesterday. After a multiple year wait, it finally arrived from Viet Nam. I heard, and read, that this the second statue. The first broke in two. There is a marble mountain there. The garden is not yet complete, i expect some more pieces.

Close up, but she has no face.

The fence outside the Rockefeller Greenhouse was dented by a falling tree. The offending tree has been cut up behind/inside the fence.

Cleveland Aquarium at Gordon Park (east side) was closed in 1985. It is being torn down this week. A rude graffiti is temporarily on view.

doggy shoe salesman, Gordon Square (west side)

Goddess of Death by Tracy Doran

Top of old iconostasis at old St. Mary Romanian Orthodox, the church is now part of Cleveland Public Theatre, To-day was the annual Día de Muertos celebration. [click 2022, 2021, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013] The main ofrenda/altar is by Robin Heinrich and Adam Carroll.

friendly young woman in the old choir

part of new fish mural on West 54th by Jared McFadden

______________________________________________________________

google/blogger has made uploading my own photographs onto this page more cumbersome, every new idea/procedure you can count on to be shitty.

Tlaxochimaco & Xócotl (h)uetzi

 

These two fotos are part of the large presentation in front of the former iconostasis, in the former St. Mary Romanian Orthodox church, now part of Cleveland Public Theatre. The left side (which these two pictures show part) represent what would reflect the Mexica (Aztecs) before the arrival of the Spanish. The right side reflects on the present time. I spoke to the artist. She told me, the Western Christian misidentified as gods, what would be elements. Their old calendar had 18 months of 20 days, and five other days. The two late summer months would be the time to celebrate, and acknowledge the dead. After Mexico was christianised, these celebrations melded with the Western Christian (Catholic) All Saints, and All Souls on the first two days of November.

smoke and incense

part of Altar#5 by Rebekah Trevino and others are for the unnamed dead migrants that are found dead in their trek.

lower portion Altar#4 Los Portales by Kristy Ellen Kmit has a Zen influence

see previous posts: 2021,  2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013.

Ofrendas y altares

 

Before St. Mary Romanian Orthodox moved to Warren Road, they had the first Romanian church in America here 1905 on Detroit of Ohio City. The campus was sold to Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox in 1960.  Now it belongs to Cleveland Public Theater, and for a number of years it has been the site for Dia de los Muertos. Here before the old iconostasis is a splendid altare. Before Meso-America was christianised, they remembered their departed dead. Whether one considers this a blending with All Saints and All Souls Days, or an example of religious syncretism. it is a comfortable and cohesive fit. Among popular usage, the religious continues. The secular Hallowe'en of the United States had been spooky, and not holy; and it has degenerated into the gory and psychotic artistically.

 

Other parts of the campus have other installations. At 3.30pm there is a parade on Detroit. Covid-19 cancelled the celebration last year. This year, the parking lot has more walking room, and vendor booths are using some of it. To enter the old church, and the old parish hall medical face masks are necessary. See previous:  2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013.

 

To-day, it was rainy early, and is expected to be rainy late. We go there about noon, and it was dry; but we could not stay as long as we wanted. It is a very good festival. Cleveland has been expanding its festival and parade seasons. Before it started with St. Patrick's Day, now it is with the pre-Lenten Kurentovanje. It ended with Columbus Day, now the de los Muertos ends it. The enthusiasm for Armistice Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas parades and festivals is gone; and the weather is rarely pleasant.

 

Infra, is a katrina skeleton. José Guadalupe Posada was an cartoonist who mocked the dictator Porfirio Díaz. During the Porfiriato (1876-1910), the standard for fashion was expensive, and aristocratic French. No matter how you dress us, we will all end up as naked bones—memento mori.

Part of the altare for Murphy of Trinidad, who was a guest artist at the Parade the circle. That saw is not new, it looks like it was from when Kennedy was president. On the opposite ladder there was a sander, most carpentry power tools are now powered through batteries.

many items stand out for attention

Cassie is a female greyhound with her people. Karma is on the right. Both are females, greyhounds have varying sizes.

Mexican art styles are attractively done.

 

Mexico City's Ángel de la Independencia is on the left, Palacio de Bellas Artes Opera House on the right.

Procesión de calaveras y esqueletos

Cleveland has a Día de Muertos celebration. Ofrendas y altares (offerings and altars) were set up. Robin VanLear of Cleveland Art Museum decorated the main altare, which was the iconostasis of old St. Mary Romanian Orthodox. See previous: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013.

This year, the weather in the afternoon was good: sunny and 47 degrees. Last year, it was wet, cold, and windy, and this was the first cold day of the season. This is about the last event of the year, in which i would like to go out and get pictures. This summer, i missed a bunch of events because of physical discomfort; this began on the return from a Memorial Day parade. My right knee, and by extension the leg was often in pain; also the heat on some days was too much. There were several patches of heat waves, including mid to upper 80s from October 6 to the 10th.

Día de Muertos is both melancholy and happy. When Spanish Christianity came with the conquest of Mexico, the belief in an unending human soul was already there. The indigenous traditions merged with All Saints', and All Souls' Days. Now, yes, we live in a Protestant culture, and one that is very boisterous in its 'Evangelical and Pentecostalist' components, which are not amused by this. Also in secular culture, we have an attraction to the macabre. This can be playful or fearsome. Then we have a death, terror, and gore lust fascination. Día de Muertos is far superior to a zombie crawl.

  people entering the church

 some patiently wait

 

 applying face paint

Right before the parade, and near the old St. Mary's Romanian Orthodox campus (now Cleve. Pub. Theatre), the spectators were in a good mood. The police were incompetent and/or lazy. It was thick with people on Detroit Avenue, just a few minutes before marching began, and the cars kept going through. Very easily, one or several people could have been hurt. Right next to me, a man pulled back one of his chilren, whose back was too close to traffic. Councilman Matt Zone was there, if any of you know him, send him a message.

The procession of skulls and skeletons made a stop at a funeral home. The canopy reads "Dignity", and the two flags are of the most populous countries in North America.

 Mariachi de Santa Cecilia

Some parade participants like greyhounds. Cassius enjoys the attention.

 mariposas monarca

 Pick up Stix stiltwalkers

 next to one of the altares

Day of the Dreich

These four fotos are cropped. I could not isolate the subjects. Other good candidates were in motion, and the shutter speed was too slow with the overcast clouds.

There is a fellow who has a facebook journal of Faces of Lakewood. It turned out the most interesting part of Saturday's festival was the painted faces of people. Good fotos were not easy to get. It was tight quarters (read below), and it was hard to get the clear still shot. I saw this couple leaving heir car, and went toward them, and got one good (cropped) picture. We began talking greyhounds, i had not realised (until my nephew jogged my memory) that we talked last year. They have a brindle greyhound, who came last year.

Well, before the year started, i took a calendar of the coming year and started to write in events. Some of which were photo opportunities. Many of these we went to as a crew, my nephew, our hounds, and me. The hounds travel well, and sometimes are swarmed, and we are pelted with questions. Usually taking pictures comes to a halt. The hounds, especially Captain, hate cacophony, and that usually involves percussion. Gunshots, cannon, and fireworks are a no-no, and stationary drumlines also. The last planned outdoor event was Dia de Muertos at the old Romanian church belonging to Cleveland Public Theater. When it started Saturday, it began with rain. With the cold rain near freezing, and with a little wind it was worse. The day was drab, and dark, even with the drizzle ended it was dreich. It was the first day of the season that the hounds wore coats, and they shivered.

The campus is too compact. The former parish hall, grass yard, church, and connecting cement (now mostly new, with new church steps made walking easier and safer) are cramped for this event. The weather made people stay inside longer. A couple had family and friends in the church renew wedding vows, which was unfortunate (read: stupid) timing.

The parade did not photograph well at all. It was not black and white, it was gray. We were at a spot away from the congestion nearer West 65th, and still that bane of other photographers was not avoided. Too many act as if they were the only spectator/photographer, with no regard in blocking the sightline of others (often this is getting in front of you, and some do this progressively, and the telephones with foto lenses make matters worse. Police had people register to parade, i can not say march, because they just walked awkwardly.

This hearse approaching the staging area, before the parade.