All Soul's Weekend

Pima County Public Library Day of the Dead float for 2009 procession

All Soul’s Weekend is an event in Tucson, Arizona. It draws on Mesoamerican, Spanish Roman Catholic, and Mexican rituals, incorporating many diverse cultural traditions with the common goal of honoring and remembering the deceased.[1] [2]

After the Spanish conquest of middle America, ancient Mesoamerican rituals merged with Roman Catholic tradition yielding the holiday known today as Day of the Dead.[2] All Soul’s Weekend in Tucson represents an even further evolution of precolonial Mesoamerican rituals and Day of the Dead.[1] The event began in 1990 as an individual performance by Tucson artist Susan Johnson in remembrance of her late father. It now brings together over 100,000 people of all backgrounds in a public celebration taking place in downtown Tucson. It is an annual two-day festival including a variety of events that promote active interaction with death-related subject matter with the common goal of honoring the deceased. Though directly inspired by the history of Day of the Dead, All Soul’s Weekend includes and encourages all forms of individual expression, drawing from many cultures, religions, and rituals.[3] The mission of the weekend’s primary organizing body, Many Mouths One Stomach (MMOS), includes the perspective that death is a universal experience, uniting deceased loved ones with the living. MMOS intends All Soul’s Weekend to serve as an opportunity to approach death in a safe social setting.[4]

All Soul’s Weekend culminates with its largest event, a parade called the All Soul’s Procession. According to MMOS, “The All Souls Procession is perhaps one of the most important, inclusive and authentic public ceremonies in North America today.”[3] Participants often dress up, wear masks, paint their faces, create intricate artistic installations, and tow altars, also engaging in numerous other forms of expression in remembrance of the deceased. The deceased may include family, friends, pets, endangered species, fallen heroes, victims of war, or any other group that an individual feels deserving of remembrance. The procession is a forum for the community to engage in open authentic expression of grief, loss, joy, and celebration.[5] The procession is led by a large steel container called The Urn in which procession attendees are invited to place prayers, photographs, and other remembrances of lost loved ones. At the end of the procession, The Urn is set on fire. Burning of The Urn serves the purpose of uniting individual remembrances into a one cathartic communal expression of both grief and celebration honoring lost loved ones.[6]

Attendance to, and participation in, All Soul’s Weekend is free to the public. The event itself includes no sponsor advertising. MMOS is a non-profit organization funded exclusively by donations. All Soul’s Weekend costs approximately one dollar per attendee. The total cost for the 2014 procession was $109,850.[7] MMOS expresses pride in the community based nature of All Soul’s Weekend and does not intend to seek corporate sponsorship as, “that funding is likely to come with requirements and obligations we are reluctant to take on”.[5] Of all participants in the Procession, an average of 3,000 donate while 97,000 do not. Tax deductible donations from individuals and groups, including businesses and private organizations, may be made to MMOS in support of All Soul’s Weekend.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 C. Miller. "Day of the Dead history: Ritual dating back 3000 years". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  2. 1 2 Dale Hoyt Palfrey (November 1, 1998). "Religion and Society in New Spain: Mexico’s Colonial Era". MexConnect. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  3. 1 2 Many Mouths One Stomach. "The All Souls Procession, History", 2014.
  4. Many Mouths One Stomach. "Mission", 2014.
  5. 1 2 Many Mouths One Stomach. "The All Souls Procession Weekend, FAQs", 2014.
  6. Many Mouths One Stomach. "Projects: The All Souls Procession Weekend", 2014.
  7. 1 2 Many Mouths One Stomach., & Infogram. "Funding All Soul's Procession, 2014.

External links

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