Today was the Dia de los Inocentes, the first part of Day of the Dead, which celebrates those who did in childhood and infancy. Tomorrow will be Dia de Muertos, which celebrates everyone else. I also saw a lot of trick-or-treaters out tonight (by far the most common costume was the masked guys from Squid Game, which seems really popular here, but which I haven’t watched yet). It appears that American influence has brought some elements of Halloween into Dia de Muertos (interestingly, both holidays have partial origins in All Saints Day. In Ireland, All Saints Day traditions melded with the older traditions of the Celtic holiday Samhain and were brought to the US to become Halloween. In Mexico, Spanish evangelists incorporated Aztec traditions into All Saints Day to create Dia de Muertos). At this time last year, I was teaching Korean students (online) and learned that young people in South Korea are also starting to celebrate Halloween. These sorts of cultural exchanges are cool, but there are downsides as well. One of my older Korean students complained that younger Koreans don’t want to celebrate the traditional fall holiday (Chusoek) anymore; they just want to dress up and eat candy like Americans. I don’t know to what extent that’s actually true, but it is certainly the case that globalization often leads to a diminishing of local traditions.
I also learned today that Mexico City did not hold a Dia de Muertos parade until the year after the James Bond movie Skyfall came out, in which there is a scene that takes place during a Dia de Muertos parade in Mexico City. This was completely made up because the director thought it would look cool, but Mexicans agreed, and now it’s a real thing.
Last night, before going to bed, I doubled checked the hours at the museums I planned to visit, only find find out that everyone had updated their schedules and that most of the major tourist destinations would be closed for the day. Because of this, I ended up going to the Soumaya, an art museum with a mostly European collection, which I hadn’t planned on visiting, but which happened to be the only thing open. The Soumaya had a nice collection, but with art from across Europe, Asia, and Mexico, it lacked the focus that made the National Museum of Art special. When an art museum focuses on just one country, you can really see the way the artists are influenced by their historical circumstances and each other; a lot of that context is lost when you have a broader collection.
After the Soumaya, I made one more trip to the Zócalo, where the roped-off area was finally unroped, and then found my way to a Starbucks, where I spent about an hour working in grades. Later, I read for a bit and called a friend. These past two days have been pretty busy (and tomorrow’s schedule will be tight as well), so it was nice to slow down for a minute.
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