By Daniel Rigney
I’m a shameless museum lover. One of my personal goals since moving to Houston has been to visit every last one of the city’s many fine museums.
And I ask you, is there a better time to visit the National Museum of Funeral History than today -- a day traditionally celebrated in Mexico as the "Day of the Dead"?
This year, as always, the gates of heaven have opened over Mexico and South Texas at the stroke of midnight, October 31, and, the souls of the departed have descended earthward to visit all creatures here below for two hallowed days (All Saints and All Souls Day in the traditional Christian calendar).
A plaque at the exhibit entrance explains that the symbols of Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) combine elements of indigenous Meso-American culture with the Catholicism of the Spanish conquest.
Families honor and welcome their ancestors each year by creating memory tables or altars in their homes and redecorating gravesites in cemeteries. Death is mocked with toy skeletons and candy skulls. Altars are decorated with flowers, candles, incense, photos of departed loved ones, personal items, and food and drink enjoyed by the departed in their time on earth
The spirit of the Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo is greeted warmly at this altar composed in her honor, laden with fruit and bread of the dead, papel picado (cut paper), and an image of Ms. Kahlo accompanied by her pet monkey.
Elsewhere in the museum we find a display of Roman Catholic funeral ceremonies, including this diorama recreating the funeral of Pope John Paul II. A cross bearing the body of Jesus stands nearby.
In another section of the museum we find remembrances of the funerals of past presidents, including the scene below in which Abraham Lincoln’s body makes its last journey home.
Also on display are historic hearses, both horsedrawn and horsepowered.
The hearse shown below carried the caskets of Ronald Reagan and, later, Gerald Ford as they rode in their final motorcades.
There’s something oddly reassuring about a museum that devotes itself so frankly and unapologetically to the display of death memorabilia. Like Dia de los Muertos, the museum seems at times to mock death, and even to play it for laughs.
I'm amused to read the tombstone epitaphs that mark the graves of several famous celebrities. I learn that the headstone of the late Rodney Dangerfield, resting in Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, lies near the graves of Marilyn Monroe, Truman Capote, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, and numerous other fallen stars. Dangerfield’s epitaph reads simply, “There goes the neighborhood.”
As I move toward the museum exit, this haunting image of a ghostly woman lingers in my memory. The room grows dim. Suddenly I’m not feeling so well. Do I look alright to you?
And why won't this exit door open?
Danagram
;] All photos are by the author. The figure at top represents a Mexican grandmother (abuela) hosting Dia de los Muertos in her home. She’s lifelike, don’t you think?
I’m a shameless museum lover. One of my personal goals since moving to Houston has been to visit every last one of the city’s many fine museums.
And I ask you, is there a better time to visit the National Museum of Funeral History than today -- a day traditionally celebrated in Mexico as the "Day of the Dead"?
This year, as always, the gates of heaven have opened over Mexico and South Texas at the stroke of midnight, October 31, and, the souls of the departed have descended earthward to visit all creatures here below for two hallowed days (All Saints and All Souls Day in the traditional Christian calendar).
A plaque at the exhibit entrance explains that the symbols of Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) combine elements of indigenous Meso-American culture with the Catholicism of the Spanish conquest.
Families honor and welcome their ancestors each year by creating memory tables or altars in their homes and redecorating gravesites in cemeteries. Death is mocked with toy skeletons and candy skulls. Altars are decorated with flowers, candles, incense, photos of departed loved ones, personal items, and food and drink enjoyed by the departed in their time on earth
The spirit of the Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo is greeted warmly at this altar composed in her honor, laden with fruit and bread of the dead, papel picado (cut paper), and an image of Ms. Kahlo accompanied by her pet monkey.
Elsewhere in the museum we find a display of Roman Catholic funeral ceremonies, including this diorama recreating the funeral of Pope John Paul II. A cross bearing the body of Jesus stands nearby.
In another section of the museum we find remembrances of the funerals of past presidents, including the scene below in which Abraham Lincoln’s body makes its last journey home.
Also on display are historic hearses, both horsedrawn and horsepowered.
The hearse shown below carried the caskets of Ronald Reagan and, later, Gerald Ford as they rode in their final motorcades.
There’s something oddly reassuring about a museum that devotes itself so frankly and unapologetically to the display of death memorabilia. Like Dia de los Muertos, the museum seems at times to mock death, and even to play it for laughs.
I'm amused to read the tombstone epitaphs that mark the graves of several famous celebrities. I learn that the headstone of the late Rodney Dangerfield, resting in Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, lies near the graves of Marilyn Monroe, Truman Capote, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, and numerous other fallen stars. Dangerfield’s epitaph reads simply, “There goes the neighborhood.”
As I move toward the museum exit, this haunting image of a ghostly woman lingers in my memory. The room grows dim. Suddenly I’m not feeling so well. Do I look alright to you?
And why won't this exit door open?
Danagram
;] All photos are by the author. The figure at top represents a Mexican grandmother (abuela) hosting Dia de los Muertos in her home. She’s lifelike, don’t you think?
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