Monday, November 4, 2019

Offrendas


I always look forward to the annual display of "offrendas" at the Desert Botanical Garden's Day of the Dead Celebration.  (An offrenda is a collection of objects placed on a ritual display during the Dia de Muertos celebrations.)  The one above is paying homage to the loss caused by fires in the Amazon as well as other fires around the world.


This one was paying tribute to the artist's rich cultural heritage and honoring her family for keeping old traditions alive.






























I always enjoy seeing Zarco Guerreo's offering for this event.  Zarco is a master mask maker and he has certainly created an outstanding mask for this display.































The garden always has an offrenda that is called "the community offrenda".  It's always surrounded by lots of pretty marigolds, the traditional "flower of the dead".  It is said that these flowers use their color and scent to guide the spirits to their respective offrendas during the annual celebrations.

9 comments:

Steve Reed said...

Interesting! Love all the marigolds. They remind me of India, where marigolds are also often used in religious ceremonies.

RedPat said...

I love these, Sharon! The marigolds that I have on the deck in pots are almost the only flowers left here since the cold weather has come. I hope they are guiding good spirits this way.

Catalyst said...

I had no idea the DBG did this. Beautiful displays.

Kay said...

These are pretty amazing. I have thought I might like to dry doing something like this but forget when it comes time...

Lois said...

All of them are so interesting. I love the colors.

Bill said...

Beautiful displays and wonderful colours.

Thérèse said...

It seems I like more and more traditions, I don't know about others but I'll start to ask.

PerthDailyPhoto said...

All wonderful displays Sharon, but the community display in your last shot is incroyable!

William Kendall said...

The last one is my favourite.