Día de Muertos · Halloween · All Saints' Day
Where the marigolds lead,
life goes on
The nights get longer in autumn, and three old feasts arrive close together. Each one asks us to remember, and each says much the same thing: the ones we love are not gone, and what ends goes on into more life.
A family table that reaches to Mexico
The family's ties run south to Mexico: to canals and ridges, markets and stone stairs, and to the custom of setting a place for those who came before. An ofrenda is a plain thing, built with care. It holds candles to light the way, marigolds whose scent leads the visitors home, water for a long road, and bread to share.
From William's books:
Something does not work out. How wonderful. Nothing is taken. Nothing is wasted. Energy does not die. It goes into the bank of ages.
A stone falls. Rings travel. For a little while they stand. Then the water remembers how to be still. The standing wave of life never needed the stone.
Three nights, one remembering
Halloween
All Hallows' Eve. Lanterns in the windows, children at the door, and the old sense that the veil is thin tonight.
All Saints' Day
A day for the holy ones, known and unknown, and the good they left behind. In Mexico it is also the day of the little angels, los angelitos.
Día de Muertos
Families gather. The altars are lit, and the beloved dead are welcomed home with marigolds and candles, food, and a good deal of laughter.
Mexico Night Journeys
eleven books of canals, ridges, stairs, markets, and mist
For Lúmine and Líam. The traveling is already paid.
Heartwood Ofrenda Printables
Seven printable cards for the ofrenda. Each carries one short line in Spanish and English, for the ones we remember and for the people who gather to remember them. They are a digital download only, and nothing is shipped.
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Placeholder price, pending approval $8 for the 7-card set · $3 per design