Are we on a theme here for Day of The Dead on November 2? Maybe....
I just read in Cool News / USA Today that there is a new museum in Mexico called the National Museum of Death. The collection is rooted in Octavio Bajonero Gil's art collection. Octavio's collection includes "dozens of tiny calaveritas," or small, decorated skulls, "along with hundreds of other death-related artworks he had acquired over 50 years."
This museum embraces Mexicos' s folk heritage and interest in death-related art. In addition to the calaveritas the museum includes depictions of death from other countries, from American Halloween decorations to small replicas of the terra cotta soldiers of China.
Also featured are various statues of 'Saint Death,' the grim reaper, which is increasingly worshipped at shrines and chapels in poor neighborhoods of Mexico. Some visitors are so taken by this that they try to leave offerings. "We get some unusual people here," says Juan Manuel Vizcaino, assistant director of exhibits.
The Museum of Death attracts some 70,000 visitors each year, about one-third "from other countries, mainly the United States." One visitor, Spencer Garcia-Stinson of New Hampshire, left impressed: "It's definitely kind of bizarre," he says.
