Zombie Jamboree at British Museum
Performance, processions, storytelling, displays and much more will help visitors to the British Museum to celebrate Mexican festival the Day of the Dead.
The origins of this celebration can be traced back at least 3000. Contemporary festivals reflect a blend of native traditions and Catholic beliefs. These include building private altars, honouring the dead using sugar skulls, marigolds and the favourite foods and beverages of the deceased, and visiting graves with these as gifts.
There will be two key moments during the day when a vibrant procession of performers, musicians, dancers and Museum visitors will travel through the Museum. The performers will be dressed in carnival-style costumes made to look like skeletons, brnging with them Lady Death made of papel mach� and featuring paper cutouts which Mexicans use to decorate the graves of their family and friends and their homes, streets and shops at festival times.
In addition to the processions, a mixture of music and dance performances will take place in the Great Court throughout the day and stiltwalkers will perform on the colonnade. A Day of the Dead altar will have been made by Mexican artist Adriana Amaya in the Great Court with the help of children joining in the half-term activities in the week running up to this celebration. Adriana will also be giving demonstrations of paper cutting during the event.
Family activities will focus on making items of props and costume for the processions, with professional artists leading the workshops. There will also be a team of facepainters so that children can have traditional �skeleton� faces for the processions. In addition storytelling will be given by master storytellers Ben Haggarty and Tuup, and there will be a skeleton trail through the galleries for families to follow.
For adults and older families there will be a number of Gallery talks exploring attitudes towards life and death in different cultures. Food writer and TV presenter Stefan Gates will speak about his experience of Day of the Dead during the filming of his �Feast� series for BBC4 and the author Chloe Sayer will give an introduction to the traditions of Day of the Dead. The Paul Hamlyn Library will be displaying a volume of the Kingsborough Codex, a nine volume collection of pre-Hispanic and colonial Mesoamerican facsimiles commissioned by Viscount Kingsborough in 1831. A workshop for adults on pictograms will also take place here to accompany the Codex, followed by a Mexican themed storytelling for adults later in the afternoon.
Food and drink will be another important element of the day with both the Great Court Cafes and stalls selling delicious Mexican street food such as nachos with guacamole, salsa, chillis and cheese, mixed burritos, traditional tachos, sweet corn, churros (Mexican donuts) with a chocolate dip and Mexican beverages such as frozen Margaritas, Negra Mondelo beer, chilli hot chocolate and various flavours of fanta.
The exhibitions Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler and Revolution on Paper: Mexican Prints will also be open for visitors.
Celebrate the British Museum's Day of the Dead on Sunday 1st November, from 11am-5pm.
The origins of this celebration can be traced back at least 3000. Contemporary festivals reflect a blend of native traditions and Catholic beliefs. These include building private altars, honouring the dead using sugar skulls, marigolds and the favourite foods and beverages of the deceased, and visiting graves with these as gifts.
There will be two key moments during the day when a vibrant procession of performers, musicians, dancers and Museum visitors will travel through the Museum. The performers will be dressed in carnival-style costumes made to look like skeletons, brnging with them Lady Death made of papel mach� and featuring paper cutouts which Mexicans use to decorate the graves of their family and friends and their homes, streets and shops at festival times.
In addition to the processions, a mixture of music and dance performances will take place in the Great Court throughout the day and stiltwalkers will perform on the colonnade. A Day of the Dead altar will have been made by Mexican artist Adriana Amaya in the Great Court with the help of children joining in the half-term activities in the week running up to this celebration. Adriana will also be giving demonstrations of paper cutting during the event.
Family activities will focus on making items of props and costume for the processions, with professional artists leading the workshops. There will also be a team of facepainters so that children can have traditional �skeleton� faces for the processions. In addition storytelling will be given by master storytellers Ben Haggarty and Tuup, and there will be a skeleton trail through the galleries for families to follow.
For adults and older families there will be a number of Gallery talks exploring attitudes towards life and death in different cultures. Food writer and TV presenter Stefan Gates will speak about his experience of Day of the Dead during the filming of his �Feast� series for BBC4 and the author Chloe Sayer will give an introduction to the traditions of Day of the Dead. The Paul Hamlyn Library will be displaying a volume of the Kingsborough Codex, a nine volume collection of pre-Hispanic and colonial Mesoamerican facsimiles commissioned by Viscount Kingsborough in 1831. A workshop for adults on pictograms will also take place here to accompany the Codex, followed by a Mexican themed storytelling for adults later in the afternoon.
Food and drink will be another important element of the day with both the Great Court Cafes and stalls selling delicious Mexican street food such as nachos with guacamole, salsa, chillis and cheese, mixed burritos, traditional tachos, sweet corn, churros (Mexican donuts) with a chocolate dip and Mexican beverages such as frozen Margaritas, Negra Mondelo beer, chilli hot chocolate and various flavours of fanta.
The exhibitions Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler and Revolution on Paper: Mexican Prints will also be open for visitors.
Celebrate the British Museum's Day of the Dead on Sunday 1st November, from 11am-5pm.