The Mission’s Día de los Muertos celebration is more than just another calendar holiday; it’s an assertion and an affirmation. One of culture, faith, identity, place, solidarity and just plain free-spirited whimsy. In typicaly SF fashion, it’s up to the individual to decide. Still, it has something that always that I’ve felt is missing from any of the other religious holiday that have turned popular — namely, reverence.
Candlelight, smoke and incense, altars, portraits and a procession: the event has the scents and trappings of a Catholic massand dazzling calaveras makeup to boot. But tradition is malleable. At a certain point, it becomes about something greater than repetition.
Día de los Muertos could be summed up by a question I heard one masquerader ask another as the procession moved down 24th street. She shielded her candle, leaned over and asked, “Who are you remembering tonight?”
All photos are by the author.
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