Several days after Halloween, face paint and costumes were back in abundance Saturday at Denver Botanic Gardens in celebration of the Mexican holiday, Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.
The festival, held on a warm fall day, featured guests dressed as skeletons and Mexican painter Frida Kahlo de Rivera.
Nine large-scale representations of La Catrina, an iconic female figure in Mexican culture, loomed over the festivities. The colorful skeletons were sculpted by Ricardo Soltero. This marks the second year La Catrinas have been at the festival.
The Bonsai Pavilion featured an area of remembrance where guests could write a memory, poem or message to departed loved ones.
“We’re the platform for them to share creating this altar for a loved one,” said Yvonne Garcia-Bardwell, community-relations manager who has worked since June with a team of approximately 200 people, 50 of them volunteers, to make this celebration as authentic as possible.
“We invite the community to come in and create an altar for a loved one and showcase it for the festival,” Garcia-Bardwell said. “For me, that’s keeping it authentic. I think it’s beautiful.”
Día de los Muertos is observed in Mexico — and elsewhere with large Latino populations — traditionally from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. This is the seventh year the Denver Botanic Gardens has held Día de los Muertos.
“All are welcome to celebrate, whether they’re Mexican or not,” Garcia-Bardwell said. “You come and learn and come and share joy. It’s a community-building opportunity. I think everybody can enjoy it.”
Miriam Fernandez — dressed as Frida Kahlo de Rivera, in a yellow dress and flower headpiece — came with her family to celebrate for the first time at the gardens.
She praised the authenticity of the festival, including La Catrinas with the dresses, death faces, flowers on their heads and the colors. Every Catrina has a sign of explanation because each is unique and each has a different history depending on her state of origin. “It’s wonderful,” Fernandez said.
“We love it because it reminds us of our culture,” she said. “It’s becoming more and more popular and assimilating more to the culture and traditions.”
Fernandez would prefer to celebrate, in keeping with tradition, in a cemetery, but she’s just happy Denver is open to sharing Mexican culture.
“To make people from other cultures aware of what beautiful traditions we have in Mexico — we’re so rich in culture and customs that keep us united,” she said. “We are known for having united families and I think traditions help with that.”