Category Archives: Day of the Dead

Nov 01 2017
3 Comments
Book of Days Calendar, Day of the Dead

Harvest, or Your November Book of Days

Halloween is past, and now we are fully immersed in the Days of the Dead: All Saints Day today (Ognissanti in Italian) and on Thursday, All Souls Day, Dia de Los Muertos. As you can tell by the different languages, remembering those who have passed at this time of year is a custom across various cultures, but no where is the custom as big as it is in Mexico. What is common across the board is that this is a time of celebration, of celebrating life, and that is a pretty wonderful thing.

One of the aspects of the celebration in Mexico is Pan de Muertos: Bread of the Dead. In my family, we bake a delicious version just slightly sweet, flavored with cinnamon and anise seeds. Our recipe is below. It’s a wonderful way to mark the day, and to remember all who have come and gone. Bread of life. Celebration of life.

And since it is the start of a new month, we have our monthly gift to you, as well, and here is the November edition of your Convivio Book of Days calendar. The calendar is a nice companion to the blog, a printable PDF on standard letter size paper. Have a lovely month. And now, here’s that recipe. Each year, my mom says the same thing: “Why do we make this just once a year?” And then another year goes by before we make it again. All things in their time.

PAN de MUERTOS
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, cut into 8 pieces (or shortening)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup very warm water
2 eggs
3 cups flour, unsifted

1. Bring milk to a boil. Remove from heat, then stir in butter, sugar and salt. (My mom, who does not like butter, uses shortening.)

2. In a large bowl, mix yeast with warm water until yeast is dissolved. Let stand 5 minutes, then add the milk mixture.

3. Separate the yolk and white of one egg. Add the yolk to the yeast mixture, saving the white for later. Add the other egg, too. Now add the flour to the yeast and egg mixture, blending well until a ball of dough is formed.

4. Flour a work surface very well and place dough in center. Knead until smooth. Return to the large bowl, cover with a clean dish towel, and let dough rise in a warm place for 90 minutes.

5. Grease a baking sheet. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Turn dough out onto floured surface again and knead once more. Then divide the dough into fourths. Set one fourth aside. Roll the remaining three pieces into ropes, all of about the same length. They should be fairly hefty––not dainty ropes.

6. Pinch three rope ends together and braid. Finish by pinching ends together on opposite side. You should have one long braided loaf. Next, divide the remaining dough in half and shape each half into a bone. Cross the “bones” in an “X” shape and lay them atop the braided loaf.

7. Cover bread with the dish towel again and let it rise for 30 minutes more. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix the following:

3 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon anise seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

8. In another bowl, beat egg white slightly. When the bread has finished its 30 minutes of rising, brush top with egg white and sprinkle with the sugar mixture, being careful not to get any on the crossed bones. Bake for 35 minutes, or until done, at 350 degrees.

Each loaf serves 8 to 10. If you try it, let us know how you like it. You know we love to hear from you, and as always, we wish you very good days.

John & Seth

 

Nov 02 2016
6 Comments
Day of the Dead

¡Feliz Día de los Muertos!

calavera

Día de Muertos

In other places we stumble
upon the grounds
where we bury our dead.
I am thinking, for instance, of Pine Level
where the magnolia blooms were bigger
than our hands; we read
the stones, touched them, talked of what it is
to die, our hands beneath our heads, the sky
pressed close before our faces.

I’ve pulled the guitar from the closet.
There are candies on the ofrenda in the hallway,
and black cloth, a crucifix, cut paper,
and here: your favorite scent of candle, nutmeg,
the sugar calaveras, dancing
skeletons, bread to eat,
and photographs.

I felt lost each time we opened
the ground. Parts of me
kept falling in, covered with dirt
and flowers. But today we’ll dance won’t we
esto día we’ll dance amidst skeletons shaking
animated bones, the wooden floor, the hats
and women in skirts spinning
green spinning red blue and orange, music
and laughter: such human sounds.

What is it to die? We could think
of nothing, and maybe it is
But to live, my God
Love, I said
Create
Continue what was begun
I will dance with you
drink bone punch
We will laugh today like when you
could not catch your breath
We’ll sweep the floor with your skirt,
keep time with the violins and guitars.

 

So the poem: I wrote that, oh, a few years ago. The video? Some excellent student work from the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota. It’s Día de Muertos today, Day of the Dead. Tonight we’d do well to light candles, play festive music, and dance with those we love who return to visit. Have a wonderful time, even if the celebration is just kept in a small corner of your heart. And if you’re here in lovely Lake Worth this Saturday evening, come see us at our town’s Día de Muertos celebration. Seth and I will be there with all of our traditional Day of the Dead handicrafts from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. You can also expect festive music (mariachi and marimbas!), dancing, food, fun for kids, a vintage auto show, and a Day of the Dead procession. It’s all at the Armory Art Annex, which is the old Lake Worth Shuffleboard Courts building. Inside the gallery, beautiful altars. Outside in the courtyard is where everything else will be. Word has it there’ll be Mexican hot chocolate, too!

It’s on Saturday from 5 to 9 PM at the Armory Annex, 1121 Lucerne Avenue here in Downtown Lake Worth, just west of Dixie Highway (in between Lake Avenue and Lucerne Avenue). Be sure you stop by and say hola to us. ¡Felix Día de Muertos!

 

Oct 19 2016
8 Comments
Day of the Dead, Preparation

Dia de Muertos or, the Nights Grow Longer

Tonight, amidst the glow of a waning moon and the orange and purple lights we’ve begun to string through our home, it feels like a good night to pull a couple of chairs together, just us, you and me, maybe by the fire if you have one burning. The nights are growing cooler and longer here in the Northern Hemisphere, even here in Lake Worth. Leaves are falling from the trees in northern climes as trees cease their production of clorophyl: their energy is directed now underground, to growth we are not privy to witness.

Just as the trees shift their attention underground, so do we in our way. We gather in our harvest, store what is good for use throughout the dark months to come. We gather in our thoughts, shift our energy inward: in to the home, to the hearth, to the table, to the heart.

This autumnal time has also, since time immemorial, been the time to shift our focus underground in more literal ways: we are approaching the time when we remember our beloved dead. With the approach of November, we prepare for the feast of I Morti in Italy and in Mexico, Dia de Muertos, or Day of the Dead. These things are related to the passing of the old year into the new that comes in the Celtic tradition with Samhain, the precursor to our modern day celebration of Halloween. What begins with Halloween continues all the way to Martinmas, the 11th of November: Hollantide, Hallowtide: All Hallows and All Souls. Those orange and purple lights we strung tonight will illuminate all of these autumnal nights. The fabric of them all is woven of light and dark, of life and death.

Death is a natural part of life, of course, and I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it over and over again for as long as I write this blog: the Convivio Book of Days is no sappy saccharine book about seasonal traditions. It is a book that acknowledges that there is a seat for death at our table, at every celebration, every ceremony, for it is death’s presence that encourages us to live each day. And the ceremony of a day is what this book of days is all about.

And with I Morti and Dia de Muertos, these Days of the Dead, we approach a celebration that honors death and celebrates those who have come and gone. I know more than a few people who do not want anything to do with a holiday like Dia de Muertos. It’s too creepy, too spooky. But I think they are missing the point of the celebration… and are the poorer for it. Dia de Muertos is not a spooky and creepy time. It is, rather, a time to remember the ones we love but are no longer with us, those who have left this world for distant shores. They do live on in our hearts and in our memory and sometimes in our dreams and who knows where else they live on, but surely they do in some way. And at this time of year, especially, we are reunited with them, one way or another. No culture does this quite so beautifully and as fervently as they do in Mexico. The short film above by Harbers Studios does a lovely job of showing just what Dia de Muertos is all about.

My family is not Mexican; we are of Italian descent. But we have adopted this celebration to some extent and I encourage you to do so in your home, as well. There are many things you can do to take part: You can visit the dead. You can make a feast and celebrate with others (that’s our usual!). In the coming days I will post a recipe for Pan de Muertos, bread of the dead: just as we bake ours each Day of the Dead, so might you. And while it’s not usually my goal to get you to buy things, Dia de Muertos is one of the true specialties of our Convivio Book of Days Catalog. We sell only REAL and authentic traditional handicrafts from San Miguel de Allende, in Mexico. Nothing made in China. This supports the local artisans, many of whom are making things that their ancestors before them made, too. We think this is the best way to shop, supporting the traditional ways of artisans who feel a connection through time to the things they make. We also have a new shipping policy: Spend $50 and we’ll ship your order at no cost to you. Beautiful words those are: Free Shipping! If they can help you to celebrate these special days and nights with more meaning, all the better.

You can also come see us and shop our entire Dia de Muertos line from San Miguel de Allende at the Autumn Makers Marketplace this Saturday, October 22, from 10 AM to 4 PM at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Look for the blue and white MAKERS MARKETPLACE signs that will be posted on campus roads. If you do come, be sure to say hello. I love meeting and chatting with Convivio Book of Days readers!

 

diadelosmuertos

The short film in today’s chapter is titled Dia de los Muertos, produced in 2011 by Harbers Studios, available on Vimeo. The film description reads, “Every November, towns and cemeteries across Mexico are transformed with flowers, food and festivities, as people celebrate Dia de Muertos, or Day of the Dead. This evocative short film shows us how one culture honors relatives and friends who have died, and reminds us that though our own loved ones may be gone, they needn’t be forgotten.” Amen.

 

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