Thursday, November 2, 2017

DIA DE LOS MUERTAS - AN IWSG POST



I have to concede that it’s only fair if you begin to refer to me as ADL&ADS – a day late and a dollar short. I admit to having been overwhelmed lately, especially during the month of October. A quick trip to La La Land, winter coming much too quickly to my part of the world, and then Halloween was a bit much for me to keep up with. Yeah, I’m that kind of a light-weight.
At any rate, I had promised myself to post each month for the IWSG no matter what, so here I am even if a little less than timely. I know I read what the ‘suggested’ question of the month was, but for the life of me, I can’t remember. Since its November 1-2 I would like to talk about something else.


Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead
Día de los Muertos — also known as “Día de Muertos,” or “Day of the Dead” in English — is a holiday with Mexican origins that is celebrated on November 1 - 2. While some imagery might be close to that of Halloween, there are significant differences between the two. Día de los Muertos is a day to celebrate death — or, more specifically, the deceased — while on Halloween, death is seen as something to be feared. Día de los Muertos has both indigenous origins from the Aztec festival for Mictecacihuatl, The Lady of The Dead, and Catholic origins  from the Spanish conquistadors’ All Saints and All Souls Day.
In my life celebrating the dead was not unusual although my family has neither Mexican nor Aztec origins. When I was a young adult I remember my father asked me if I knew who’s birthday it was on a given day, and then he would proceed to tell it was my great-grandmothers or some other distant long-dead relative. As a young adult I thought that was weird, but then a lot of things about my family and my upbringing in general were kind of weird. Today, as a much older person I find myself remembering my parents, and other close friends and relative who have long left this world on their birthdays, death dates, and other significant times. It seems only natural. Is that weird, or am I merely a product of my environment.
Something even weirder is that it seems in almost everything I write someone and often multiple characters die or are dead. As writers we are told to ‘kill our darlings’, but I’m pretty sure this is not meant literally. So, my question to you today is…Is this too weird? Is it a complete downer if the MC dies at the end of the story, even if that’s they was it was ‘meant to be’? Can you see the possibility for romance, even if it is a tragic love story? I’m just not sure.
I hope that I handle it delicately and my deaths are not gratitutious, but I have to admit I can’t seem to help myself. Not every one of my characters are destined to die, but many do.
This is my IWSG Post for the month of November. If you want to know more and read other, quite possibly more interesting posts please go HERE.
Please take the time to thank Mr Alex J. Cavanaugh and those who help him continue this blog hope each month. For this overwhelmed writer it at least, helps me keep my head and hand in the blogging world.