Hello Folks -

I really enjoy reading and viewing the words and images that folks have been posting in here.

So here is a question/brainstorm need for any/everyone. My partner and I have a Dia de los Muertos party every year. We serve a Mexican Feast, have music, homebrew, sugar skulls and an ofrenda in the basement that we ask people to bring and place on a favorite memory/food/poem/etc. of loved ones that have passed on. This is the "big" event we hold at our home each year.

We don't pretend for this to a traditional celebration - in part because we are a couple of gringos in Seattle - and also because the more research I do over the years, the more aware I am that there is no one way that this is celebrated. So it is a bit of a multi-cultural experience, but hopefully with roots and respect planted firmly in the Mexican tradition. We do hold it on a weekend, so we aren't able to have it on the actual Dia de los Muertos (Rule #1 that we almost always have to break).

What I'm wondering is if people have gone to such a celebration or a celebration not at all like this but that involved people interacting and participating, some with little or no knowledge about the holiday. Were there any games, ideas, ice breakers that helped? We do find that people wander down into the basement and share stories with one another, and I'm a little conflicted about making this a little more...structured/ritualistic. It is a party after all. But I'm hoping to get some ideas from folks on what they have enjoyed in the past.

We get more people each year, and we want to make sure we can make sure the spirit of the holiday gets to all our guests, while we flit about heating up tamales and refilling horchata and taking mounds of stuff to the compost pile.

Thanks in advance for any comments.