Our lives have seasons and cycles, like everything else. Death doesn’t have to necessarily be sad or scary. The holiday comes from a cultural point of view that sees death not as a finality but as moving on to the next stage. In 2017, “Coco” helped introduce a new generation to its tenets and symbolism. It’s enjoyed a resurgence in Southern California since the 1970s, when the artist group Self Help Graphics & Art organized a public celebration in Los Angeles. Today, Día de Muertos is celebrated by Mexican Catholics and many others in Mexico and the United States. But the version that we are familiar with happened - like many things in Mexico, it’s a mixture of Indigenous traditions and also of Catholic Church traditions,” said Lalo Alcaraz, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-nominated political cartoonist who served as a consultant for the Oscar-winning Pixar film “Coco.” “Mexico’s good at mixing things together.” “Versions of have been around for thousands and thousands of years. 1 and 2 - which, not coincidentally, are All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day in Catholicism. And they did see death as sort of like the start of a new life or a new cycle,” said Angie Jimenez, the altar program director for the Día de los Muertos celebration at Hollywood Forever, which takes place Saturday.Ĭatholicism has a knack for absorbing holidays into its liturgical calendar - it’s how we ended up with Saturnalia trees at Christmas and rabbits and eggs at Easter - and something like that happened in Mexico with this holiday. “The Aztecs did honor the dead with celebrations and rituals during what was the harvest season. The holiday originated in Aztec culture before Spanish colonizers and the Roman Catholic Church arrived. But for many Southern Californians, it’s the season of Día de Muertos. The dominant one in America is Halloween.

It’s not a coincidence that many cultures around the world have celebrations and ceremonies relating to death at this time of year. In spring, food is planted and animals are born in summer they grow, in fall comes the harvest, and in winter things are dead. The days are shorter, the air crisper, the leaves changing.

Dia de los muertos altar mexico