DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS COLLECTIVE MARKS DAY OF THE DEAD 2022 ONCE AGAIN IN PERSON

(SEPTEMBER 28, 2022, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE)

Toronto’s Día de los Muertos Collective, in partnership with Casa Maíz Cultural Centre, this year returns to staging its popular annual celebration of Day of the Dead as an in-person event. Planned for the first time in collaboration with the University of Toronto, festivities will unfold on five different sites between October 13 and November 6, 2022: at Hart House (7 Hart House Circle), at the Peter MacKendrick Community Gallery (76 Wychwood Avenue), at Artscape Wychwood Barns (601 Christie Street), at First Nations House (563 Spadina Avenue), and at Casa Maíz Cultural Centre (1280 Finch Avenue W. #204).

Under the banner of solidarity with Indigenous peoples’ movements worldwide, the celebration aims to educate, honour, mobilize, and delight with its signature mixture of music, dance, and theatre performances, Indigenous ceremony, an art exhibition, public altars, workshops, and a food and crafts market. Torontonians will rejoice at the opportunity to once again come together in person for the celebration’s vibrant and inspiring main gathering at the Wychwood Barns on October 29.

Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) is a unique Mexican celebration that was declared part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2003. Mixing the solemn with the festive, the folkloric with the sacred, it acknowledges death’s universality and emphasizes the constant and inevitable interweaving of life and death.

The current moment—marked by war, sustained racial and gender violence, accelerated environmental destruction, and the ongoing effects of a global pandemic—invites the careful consideration of life’s fragility, especially in relation to long-standing systemic inequities. In light of this reality, the Día de los Muertos Collective deems the gathering of community—to celebrate life, honour the dead, and recognize the profound connections between the two—as a universal and essential need.

As always, “community” here includes not only those of Mexican, Latinx, or Indigenous heritage. While Day of the Dead is deeply rooted in Mexican culture and history, the Collective considers the celebrations to be of Tkaronto/Toronto: anyone interested in understanding and honouring these traditions forms part of the community that brings the festivities to life.

The celebration’s 2022 thematic focus will highlight global Indigenous struggles, their interconnectedness, resurgence in spite of them, and solidarity with these battles for justice and equity. The Collective is particularly thrilled to this year expand its artistic, ceremonial, and educational offerings in partnership with Hart House and First Nations House at U of T in an effort to contribute to and advance the important work of truth, reconciliation, and renaissance on Turtle Island and beyond.

See the Día de los Muertos website for full programming and further details as they become available. Please note that public health recommendations may require last-minute changes.

INQUIRIES: Jesús Mora (info@diadelosmuertosto.org) or Luis Rojas (production@diadelosmuertosto.org)