Day of the Dead
Supported by BP, a major free event at the British
Museum
Join the Fiesta!
Sunday 1 November 2009 11.00—17.00
Venues across the Museum
Admission free
On Sunday 1 November the British Museum will host a special
celebration of the Day of the Dead; an annual Mexican festival
where families gather to remember the dead. The British Museum will
present an engaging programme of performance, processions,
storytelling, displays and much more.
The origins of this celebration can be traced back at least 3000
years among Mexico’s pre-Hispanic indigenous cultures. Contemporary
festivals reflect a blend of native traditions and Catholic
beliefs. These include building private altars, honouring the dead
using sugar skulls, marigolds and the favourite foods and beverages
of the deceased, and visiting graves with these as gifts.
There will be two key moments during the day when a vibrant
procession of performers, musicians, dancers and Museum visitors
will travel through the Museum. The performers will be dressed in
carnival-style costumes made to look like skeletons and Katrinas
(Lady Death) made of papel maché and featuring papel picado (paper
cutouts which Mexicans use to decorate the graves of their family
and friends and their homes, streets and shops at festival
times).
In addition to the processions, a mixture of music and dance
performances will take place in the Great Court throughout the day
and stiltwalkers will perform on the colonnade. A Day of the Dead
ofrenda (altar) will have been made by Mexican artist Adriana Amaya
in the Great Court with the help of children joining in the
half-term activities in the week running up to this celebration.
Adriana will also be giving demonstrations of paper cutting during
the event.
Family activities will focus on making items of props and
costume for the processions, with professional artists leading the
workshops. There will also be a team of facepainters so that
children can have traditional ‘skeleton’ faces for the processions.
In addition storytelling will be given by master storytellers Ben
Haggarty and Tuup, and there will be a skeleton trail through the
galleries for families to follow.
For adults and older families there will be a number of Gallery
talks exploring attitudes towards life and death in different
cultures. Food writer and TV presenter Stefan Gates will speak
about his experience of Day of the Dead during the filming of his
‘Feast’ series for BBC4 and the author Chloe Sayer will give an
introduction to the traditions of Day of the Dead. The Paul Hamlyn
Library will be displaying a volume of the Kingsborough Codex, a
nine volume collection of pre-Hispanic and colonial Mesoamerican
facsimiles commissioned by Viscount Kingsborough in 1831. A
workshop for adults on pictograms will also take place here to
accompany the Codex, followed by a Mexican themed storytelling for
adults later in
the afternoon.
Food and drink will be another important element of the day with
both the Great Court Cafes and stalls selling delicious Mexican
street food such as nachos with guacamole, salsa, chillis and
cheese, mixed burritos, traditional tachos, sweet corn, churros
(Mexican donuts) with a chocolate dip and Mexican beverages such as
frozen Margaritas, Negra Mondelo beer, chilli hot chocolate and
various
flavours of fanta.
The exhibitions Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler and
Revolution on Paper: Mexican
Prints will also be open for visitors (tickets
for Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler are subject to
availability – admission charge applies).
If you would like to attend or film on the day please contact
Esme Wilson on 020 7323 8394 / ewilson@britishmuseum.org
To print:
For more information please contact the British Museum on 020 7323
8000 / 8299 or information@britishmuseum.org
Notes to Editors
- BP is the British Museum’s largest and most longstanding
corporate sponsor, supporting the Museum on an annual basis since
1998. Most recently, BP supported the major exhibition
Hadrian: Empire and
Conflict.