STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

MissMee · Kate Spade

Has anyone here had a Day of the Dead party?

bluediamond · Dooney & Bourke

This sounds like fun! for decor and lighting how about buying a lot of those religious candles that come in all colors with images of the virgin mary, etc.

http://www.mexgrocer.com/catagories-household-religious-candles.html

asf · Kate Spade

i have never had nor attended one, but here's some info i found:

what do mexicans celebrate on "the day of the dead?" http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rjsalvad/scmfaq/muertos.html

from ehow.com:

How to Celebrate Diás de los Muertos

Like most holidays throughout the world, Diás de los Muertos mingles the rituals of ancient and modern religions with a hefty dose of rowdy fun. The Aztecs believed that when people die, their souls live on as birds and butterflies. So, on October 27, when golden clouds of Monarch butterflies return to Mexico from their summer homes in the North, the celebration begins.

Steps:

1.
Throw a party to celebrate the lives of your departed relatives or friends, and invite the people who knew and loved them best.

2.
Keep in mind that the festivities in Mexico last for several days, and when the Aztec goddess Mictecacihuatl ran the show, it went on for a month. But you can easily condense your party into one tradition-bending evening.

3.
Serve food and drinks that your absent guest or guests of honor liked; play their favorite music; deck the party scene with their favorite flowers and photographs of their favorite places; read aloud from their favorite books.

4.
Show videos or old home movies, pass around snapshots, and tell stories about the absent guest or guests of honor.

5.
Add a Mexican touch by serving traditional Diás de los Muertos treats such as marzipan in the shapes of skulls, skeletons and crosses; and a bread called pan de los muertos. You can find these and other seasonal goodies in Hispanic markets, or make your own from recipes in a Mexican cookbook.

6.
Hang a piñata filled with paper butterflies.

Tips:

Diás de los Muertos is a light-hearted, even boisterous, celebration, not a somber ritual of mourning - have fun with it.

valenciana · Dooney & Bourke

i've never had one or been to one...but little tin/papier mache masks and figurines are key, but anything with skulls would add to the atmosphere, and lots of colorful tissue paper flowers. this little boutique i used to shop at sometimes in nashville always carried tons of decorations and knick-knacks that would be appropriate...here's a few sites i found that sell similar stuff:

http://www.directfrommexico.com/mexican-folk-art--dod--accent-items.html
(apparently free shipping on all orders)

http://www.milagrosgallery.com/mg-cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?product=DayoftheDead

http://www.silvercrowcreations.com/accessoriesframes.asp?main=DayOfTheDeadCharacters.htm

you could probably find stuff on ebay too

dot · Marc Jacobs

wow what a great idea! sounds like you have some amazing suggestions already.

you should do masks even if you don't dress up!

MissMee · Kate Spade

Wow! Thanks for the info and sites! I got the idea while at Target today. They had some really cute Folk Art skulls in the Halloween section that I was trying to figure out how they could work for me. I don't think we'd celebrate it in the traditional sense, but the theme and decorations really appeal to me.

I was hoping Plum Party would have some cool stuff, but so far I haven't found any party sites with paper goods or anything of the like. I'm loving the stuff in the first link, though, valeniana!

theotherjess · Chanel

Yeah, we had one in Spanish class a few times.

There was always this really yummy bread stuff. I forget what it's called but there are little "bones" on the top shaped from dough and I think there was cinnamon in it. Most of the decorations were these brightly colored paper cutout things that were very festive. Also there were flowers. That's all I remember but I'm sure if you look it up you could find some technical terms instead of "bread stuff" (sorry about that).

greendiamond · Marc Jacobs

Isn't the bready stuff similar to the mardi gras cakes? King cake? Or am I combining my classroom celebrations from highschool?

-gd

Side note - I know we sang a day of the dead song "la dia de los muertos, que los esparan"

I'm sure I made a few grammer/spelling mistakes, but it has been 9 years, and I wasn't an A Spanish student. That's all I remember from the day of the dead parties at school. How sad.

-- Edited by greendiamond at 18:43, 2006-09-19

-- Edited by greendiamond at 18:43, 2006-09-19