Dia de los Muertos then and now.

It's getting closer and closer to our other favorite day of the dead holiday Dia de Los Muertos. We hold the tradition of the Day of the Dead festivities close to our hearts here at City locs. You may have noticed we offer quite a few products in the Dia de Los Muertos style of emblazoned decorated sugar skull designs. On everything from classic locs sunglasses to our newest offerings like custom engraved wood phone cases. We take a lot of pride in the history and cultural roots of the Day of the Dead celebrations.

This holiday celebrated all over the North and South American continents today has very deep roots. Way back to the Mesoamerican pre-Columbian societies including the Olmec, Mayan’s and Aztec cultures of North and South America. these roots can be traced back over 4000 years. In pre-Spanish colonial Aztec days. Then it was commonplace to celebrate for approximately over a full month during our modern Mid August time - Late September. Corresponding to the annual Corn harvest.

Fast forward roughly 3500 hundred years to the time of the Spaniard's arrival in Mesoamerica and there is a major contrast to the Catholic rituals and belief system surrounding death and the loss of loved ones in general. The Spaniards tried at great length to eradicate the rituals and old ways of celebrating the Dia de Los Muertos holidays. The people of the new world where forced to convert to the new way of worshipping and were encouraged very sternly to leave their old belief systems behind.

The roots of these eons old traditions ran deep and the church was unable to uproot them. Until eventually there was a sort of forced acceptance of the old ways of celebrating Dia de Los Muertos. The holiday was moved slightly later in the year and reduced to two days starting on the end of Oct 31 and running until the end of November 2nd. Which coincidentally corresponds to the Catholic holidays of all saints and all souls day.

The Original Dia de Los Muertos type of celebrations focused mainly on the celebration of the Aztec Queen of the Underworld Mictecacihuatl also known as the queen of the dead. In these ancient cultures, it was their long-held belief that once one had died they passed into a higher plane of existence and entered the underworld the land of the dead. They had long-held beliefs to the cyclical nature of life and death and accepted death as a natural outcome to be embraced and not feared. It was commonplace and practiced regularly to celebrate death. It was not frowned upon and individuals were expected to wholeheartedly celebrate the passing of their friends loved ones and anyone in general.

Today the holiday of Dia de Los Muertos is most associated with Mexico and most intensely with central Mexico. But is also associated with almost any country in the Americas which boasts any substantial Hispanic population. Most recently it has spread in the last couple of decades to the southwestern United States and is ever increasingly being celebrated in unison with the more traditional European day of the dead All Hallows Eve Halloween. And places like Los Angeles are the host of many Dia de Los Muertos fairs events and even a more traditional annual tradition held at world famous Hollywood Forever cemetery the final resting place for many a Hollywood star and starlet.

We here at Citylocs love to celebrate the Dia de Los Muertos Holiday. We love to see everyone painting their faces and to watch traditional indigenous peoples dance routines in celebration of loved ones passed on. We love the look of sugar skulls decorated with colorful and fanciful designs. We feel it an honor to continue in this age-old tradition and pass it on to generations to come.

We love this time of year and can't wait for what comes next. Before you know it it'll be Thanksgiving black Friday cyber Monday and Merry Merry Christmas. So get out there and have some fun and don't forget to subscribe to our future blog posts and email newsletters and keep an eye out for special holiday deals and new product arrivals. So stay safe and have fun we look forward to seeing you back here soon.

Like always from the whole Citylocs.com team thank you and keep on watching.