Saint John Adds Day Of The Dead Festival

Saint John will add a new event this month.

Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a traditional Mexican festival celebrating art and culture while remembering those who came before.

“We’re going to start at 6 o’clock on October 29th. We will have our opening ceremony. We are going to have a presentation by Rothesay Ballet,” said Fabiola Martinez.

The event will also feature ‘Altar’, a contemporary art installation inspired by the traditional altar of the Day of the Dead in Mexico.

Tradition holds that public art is a representation that embraces the beauty of how everyone is connected through sharing experiences of life and death while residing in the same land.

The participating artists are Carla Mariela Vizcarra, North East Moon (Cassandra Ida Rebecca), Fabiola Martinez, Ji Hyang Ryu, Jill Higgins, Kelley Joyce-Floyd, Lisa-Ann Scichilone, Melinda Sheehan and Sheryl Crowley.

Another component of the festival is a Catrina contest at Five and Dime on Grannan Lane.

It’s inspired by Mexico’s lady of death, La Catrina. She is the most famous character created by influential Mexican political lithographer, José Guadalupe Posada.

La Catrina serves as a reminder to enjoy life and embrace mortality. The Catrina can dance, joke, and play, but must not speak.

Creativity, costume and makeup will be considered when determining the winner. The contest winner will get a surprise gift and be the image used for next year’s festival.

It costs $10 to enter and the participants must be at least 19 years old to take part.

Martinez is excited to be part of the festival and gave credit to the organizing committee and volunteers for all the hard work to make it happen.

“We hope the community will join us at this event that we have done with a lot of love and passion to share our heritage and for them to enjoy it,” Martinez said.