By LISA MILLS
Pagan Alliance News Service
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Nov. 6, 2004 was amazing!! We had beautiful weather, friendly people, and lots of children.
But let's start out with the focus and events of the day. As you all know it was a Day of the Dead celebration, with a very strong Native American, Incan and Mexican influence. The whole event was geared toward education of the meaning of Day of the Dead, especially towards the younger generation. They collaborated with local classes of about 4th and 5th grades who created various forms of artwork and crafts as they learned about Day of the Dead.
The fruits of their labors by no means received any lack of attention, on and around the ritual circle were tables, small pools, and trees decorated with their artwork — they were wonderful and creative displays. The main altar was built up against a large tree in the grassy area in front of the art buildings, facing east. The grounds were blessed in the morning, and Doug and I were welcomed to follow as the circle was created. The woman who was doing the blessing was the coordinator of the event with help from her daughter who is in the 1st grade and played a key role throughout the event and kind of adopted us (we all kept each other company).
We had a large table for the main altar, along with a cauldron burning Celtic incense on a wood pentacle that had flowers scattered on the base and apple "pentacle" slices laid against it. There were altar candles and white God/Goddess candles with images of the God and Goddess in front of them that Heather did an amazing job drawing and coloring.
We also had pink, red and black tea lights spread out over the table. A chalice was filled with pomegranate juice, offering dishes filled with birdseed and fresh pumpkin seeds. There was also a skeleton that was made by Wendy and her Goddess Daughter out of paper and painted that Wendy graciously let us use. We also had a poster hanging from the front of the altar that said our name: CSULB Pagan Alliance that Heather did a great job of making (she put sea shells on it too!).
There was also a smaller table right next to the altar which had an Ancestor Tree that Sigrid offered for us to use, with paper leaves and pens to write the names of our ancestors on and to place on the tree. In front of it we had a cauldron burning an incense mixture made up of cinnamon, nutmeg and ground sage.
At the end of the day we burned the leaves so the smoke would travel to the ancestors. |
