Garden Comes Alive for Day of the Dead

The Naples Botanical Garden once again brought the community together with live music, dancing, color, and food to celebrate the Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos), a Mexican and Latin American holiday that honors and celebrates the lives of those who have passed. Día de los Muertos dates back some 3,000 years to rituals performed in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.

For Christians, this holiday is also called All Saints Day on November 1st and All Souls Day on November 2nd. Día de los Muertos is not a Latin version of Halloween, which has its roots in Celtic pagan traditions that celebrated the end of the harvest season and has since evolved into pumpkin carving, costumes, and trick-or-treating. Día de los Muertos is all about tradition.

At the Garden, marigolds – the traditional flower of Día de los Muertos – were everywhere. It is believed that their bright gold color and strong scent guide the departed loved ones back to the altars set up by their earthbound loved ones. Young visitors were encouraged to “plant a memory and let it bloom” by taking home a small marigold seedling to honor and celebrate the memory of a loved one.

Ofrendas are community altars adorned with candles, marigold flowers, sugar skulls, and an assortment of the favorite foods and drinks of the departed loved ones. The altars also include photos and family memorabilia. Kapnick Hall had several tables of ofrendas, and Yolanda and Rita, both sisters, honored their beloved departed with pictures of the Hernandez and Seifert Family.

Pan de Muerto, the bread of the dead, is another tradition, usually a circular sweet bread decorated with bone-shaped designs and sprinkled with sugar.

Pan de muerto is slightly sweet and flavored with ingredients like orange blossom, chocolate, vanilla, or anise. It’s best enjoyed with hot chocolate or coffee, but on a hot day, visitors indulged in another Mexican traditional refreshing drink – Horchata.

Horchata, or agua de horchata, is a refreshing Mexican rice-and-cinnamon drink and was a big treat during the festival.

Danza Azteca Guadalupana, a fiesta celebrating the dearly departed, would not be complete without colorful dancers and music. Azteca dancers draw inspiration from Mexico’s Aztec past, and their music and dance were part of religious rituals performed to appease the gods. Now, the dances are ceremonial, adapted to modern audiences and used during festivities. The dancers are elaborately dressed, with the women wearing decorative skirts or tunics with long, colorful feathered headdresses. They moved to the hypnotic rhythm of a ceremonial drum and used shells and gourds filled with seeds as shakers or as anklets. If you closed your eyes and listened to the music, you could hear the percussion rhythm long before you saw the dancers. The vibrant event was a feast for all senses and supported by Collier County’s ¡Arte Viva! Program.