Celebrating Life during Day of the Dead time with our YAGM group



At our November monthly YAGM gathering, we celebrated the Mexican tradition of making an Ofrenda: a table or spread with special objects, foods, flowers,  photos, and candles to honor those who have gone before us.  On our Ofrenda, we put two types of objects: one to represent loved ones who have died, and another to represent the deaths we experience daily as we die to experiences, old habits, youth, naivete, and ways of being so that we can move into new experiences.  This photo is of part of group listening as I told a blend of two folktales from Haiti and Mexico about Death and La Catrina for a devotion.  

 

This is a photo of our YAGM group singing on Day of the Dead.  We each shared reflections and memories of those who have gone before us who were close to us.  This photo is of Kat sharing a hymn that was special to her grandmother with our YAGM group.  I put a water bottle on the Ofrenda in honor of my Grampa Irv, who loved running, and who died while he was running.  The water bottle tells a story I've heard many times from my Gramma Jo, who says she and my Grampa Irv used to drive through the town at night and hide water bottles in the bushes along my Grampa's running route. The next morning Grampa would go running and stop at the bushes along the way to find his water bottle and drink a sip!