Hello friends, Halloween is coming! Here in Venezuela we do not celebrate this holiday but we commemorate the Day of the Dead and All Saints Day. On the Day of the Dead we go to the cemetery to light candles, pray for the souls of the deceased and place flowers.
On November 2nd we commemorate the Day of the Dead or Fieles Difuntos as it is also called. This celebration is done with the purpose of honoring our loved ones who have departed from the earthly plane. So, visits are made to the cemetery to clean the graves, light candles, decorate with flowers and offer prayers for the repose of the souls.
I am on other platforms and they are already doing contests alluding to the theme of Halloween; for that reason I wanted to bring for those who celebrate this date, a decorative and functional craft. This is the main purpose of this publication, to show how to make a decorative object for Halloween with waste material.
Decorative object for Halloween: Frankenstein
Materials used: a plastic bottle, two bottle caps, permanent marker, green paint, black paint, hot and cold silicone, scissors, cardboard, paintbrush and sponge.
Step 1: Cut out a strip of cardboard and a circle from which we remove the first layer to use the part with channels. Glue with hot silicone to form a lid for the container.
Step 2: Paint the cardboard lid with hot silicone.Paint the cardboard lid black, which is the hair of the doll and the two bottle caps we paint them gray. While it dries we continue with the next step.
Step 3: Trim the bottle to where we want it to be.Cut the bottle up to where we want to see the container. Apply a coat of green paint that serves as a base for the neon green tone. Apply the neon paint to the bottle.
Step 4: Once the paint is dry, make the eyes.Once the paint is dry, make the eyes with foami and glue them to the bottle with cold silicone. Then paint the eyebrows and other details and the Frankenstein is ready to be filled with candy.
Apart from the Frankenstein, I made a spider but for another platform it was amazing, it was almost the same procedure but for the legs I used construction wire so it could hold weight. Below I leave the link so you can see the elaboration of that project, if you are interested.
I was saying that here in Venezuela, we don't celebrate Halloween but with the transculturation, some people make thematic parties about that day. This popular tradition varies from country to country.
"The origin of the holiday dates back to the year 980 when the abbot of the Monastery of Cluny, called Saint Odilon or Odilo suggested the idea of the creation of a day in which to honor the dead. His idea was well accepted by other congregations being the first of them to accept it the Diocese of Liege in the year 1000, until it was accepted as the date on which the Church celebrates it." "https://www.ecured.cu/D%C3%ADa_de_los_fieles_difuntos
Before the conquest, our indigenous people celebrated the Day of the Dead, but with the arrival of the Spaniards, both cultures were syncretized, adding elements of one and the other. However, in each region or country this custom varies.
In Mexico, for example, in some places, they worship the dead by placing altars with objects of loved ones who departed to the spiritual plane, food, drinks, flowers, skulls and other offerings. It is said that the dead come to visit the world of the living.
"The "Mexican fiesta" was declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), considering it as "one of the most relevant representations of the living heritage of Mexico and the world, and as one of the oldest and strongest cultural expressions among the country's indigenous groups." http://www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve/venezuela-conmemora-dia-fieles-difuntos/
I remember that in my family, they would go to the cemetery to bring flowers but the wake was at home. With time, this tradition has lost a little bit of custom due to the insecurity that reigns in the cemeteries; also because the generational interests have changed. In addition to this, the country's crisis, since moving from one state to another is costly and problematic due to the scarcity of gasoline for transportation; it usually happens when the deceased have been buried in another city. But in spite of everything, there are still many faithful to this tradition.
Currently, it is common to see plays or television programs related to the occasion of the celebration of the dead that take place in Mexico and with the theme of Halloween, the latter known as "Witch Night"; it is the one that is having more influence in our culture.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
I took the photos with a Redmi 9 phone and edited them in Power Point.
Wow good work! Keep it up