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The Chicano Humanities and Arts Council always gets a jump on local Day of the Dead festivities with El Dia de los Muertos: A Celebration of Life! Tonight’s special opening reception will include a mash-up of DOTD traditions, from a candlelit street procession to live Aztec dancers to a taste of such time-honored treats as Mexican chocolate and pan de muerto. CHAC has been celebrating this holiday for more than thirty years, and its annual exhibit is always a knockout, especially if you like dancing skeletons, marigolds, sugar skulls and poignant ofrendas (altars) commemorating the dead.
It’s also educational: “We Anglos tend to see death as scary and creepy,” CHAC’s Crystal O’Brien told us a decade ago. “Some of my friends hear about Day of the Dead and they think it’s something bad, something horrible, so I have to explain that it’s really a celebration of life.”
The celebration at CHAC, 772 Santa Fe Drive, starts at 6 and goes until 9 p.m. El Dia de los Muertos: A Celebration of Life! continues through November 1; visit chacweb.org or call 303-571-0440 for information.
Fri., Oct. 3, 6-9 p.m.; Wednesdays-Saturdays; Fri., Oct. 17, 6-9 p.m. Starts: Oct. 3. Continues through Nov. 1, 2014
