Katrina

According to Mexican legends, the souls of the dead can return to earth for several days a year and visit those places and those people whom they loved during their lifetime. These days fall on November 1 and 2. These are the Days of the Dead.
Day of the Dead is the most popular holiday in Mexico. And these are not sad and sad days, but joyful ones. Mexicans treat death differently. Therefore, this is not a tragic, but a joyful day of meeting with those who were dear during their lifetime.
The holiday begins the day before: October 31 and part of the first day of November are assigned to dead children, then the time for adult dead comes. Musicians dressed as skeletons take to the streets, and at night the whole country, under the illumination of torches, rushes to the graves of relatives, capturing, traditionally, tequila, the favorite food of the deceased and sugar skulls with their names on their foreheads. At night from the side it looks like a river of fire flows towards the cemetery. In cemeteries they drink, eat, dance, tear their clothes off and sprinkle ashes on their heads from dusk to dawn. - a full range of emotions. And at dawn they return home.
And strange as it may sound to us, it is interesting to walk around the Mexican cemetery. Each grave is a work of art, according to which you can get an idea of the person: he was a carpenter, or a watchmaker, or maybe he liked to drink? Or plant flowers?
And there is also a small building in the cemeteries in the form of a room with a hole in the ceiling. This is a special place, the meaning of which is that if you did not manage to say something important to the deceased person during his lifetime, then even after his death you can go into this room and whisper unsaid, but important words for both of you. And if you are sincere, then the deceased person will definitely hear you.
It's hard to imagine a Day of the Dead without ... Catrina.
Katrina was invented by Mexican graphic artist and cartoonist Jose Guadalupe Posada around 1910-13 of the 20th century.
He depicted a female skull in a luxurious hat in the latest European fashion of the time. This is how they dressed in the best French and Spanish houses at the beginning of the 20th century and this style was tried to imitate the rich Mexican young ladies. It was a harbinger of a troubled revolutionary time, Posada sympathized with the poor and sided with the rebels. He drew Katrina as a caricature of the fair sex from the ruling aristocracy. Who would have thought that Katrina would later turn into one of the main symbols of the Day of the Dead, whose traditions date back almost three millennia. The famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera helped Katrina become an important figure in the celebration of the Day of the Dead. He painted it on his famous fresco from 1946-47. "Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central (Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central)" - "Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park"
Thanks to Diego Rivera, Katrina received the completeness of the image, she had a body. Since then, she has constantly changed stunning outfits in a variety of styles, often richly decorated with flowers.