ABOUT DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS COLLECTIVE

The Día de Los Muertos Collective is a nonprofit that coordinates the efforts of Toronto´s community to bring a celebration that honors the dead, delights the living, promotes artistic creation and foster community development through tradition.

ABOUT THE DAY OF THE DEAD

In traditional Day of the Dead/ Día de los Muertos festivities in Mexico, friends and family gather to remember loved ones who have passed away, and to support their spiritual journey onward. In the spirit of a culture that is alive, thriving, and therefore ever transforming, we invite you to join the Day of the Dead celebration at the Wychwood Barns — and through your participation make it yours and the community’s. To commemorate those who have died — whether in our own families or circle of friends or as a result of political persecution or neglect — we celebrate our being alive with food and dance, honour the memory of those gone through altars and art, and create an awareness of the fragility of life and its constant interweaving with death by way of the festivity’s geography. Alongside a day-long program that also strives to acknowledge our indebtedness to and respect for Canada’s Indigenous inhabitants, we invite you to explore the grounds of the Barns, which together and through your presence and participation constitute one enormous, animated altar. As a community member, you give the celebration its shape and meaning: pass from our world of the living, represented by the Market (Tianguis) through Limbo to the Underworld (Mictlan); approach the Sacred Fire under guidance from its Indigenous guardians; make an offering of marigolds at the community altar; discover the Clandestine Graves that remind us of the many deaths worldwide that occur under dubious circumstances; and pay homage to these victims and express solidarity with their families by participating in the creation of a community sand sculpture. Celebrating together, we acknowledge death’s universality, honour the dead, and make a stand for a better future of greater justice.