DIA DE LOS MUERTOS / DAY OF THE DEAD 2022

Toronto’s Día de los Muertos Collective, in partnership with Casa Maíz Cultural Centre, this year returns to staging its popular annual celebration of Day of the Dead as an in-person event. Planned for the first time in collaboration with the University of Toronto, festivities will unfold on five different sites between October 13 and November 6, 2022: at Hart House, at the Peter MacKendrick Community Gallery, at Artscape Wychwood Barns, at First Nations House, and at Casa Maíz Cultural Centre.

Under the banner of solidarity with Indigenous peoples’ movements worldwide, the celebration aims to educate, honour, mobilize, and delight with its signature mixture of music, dance, and theatre performances, Indigenous ceremony, an art exhibition, public altars, workshops, and a food and crafts market. Torontonians will rejoice at the opportunity to once again come together in person for the celebration’s vibrant and inspiring main gathering at the Wychwood Barns on October 29.

WORKSHOPS
OCT 13, 2022, 12-2pm
Hart House
7 Hart House Circle

OCT 24, 2022, 2-5 pm
First Nations House
3rd Floor Lounge
563 Spadina Avenue
Registration Deadline: Oct 24, 2022 6pm

Learn how to create your own papel picado—the beautiful and intricate designs cut into colourful tissue paper that are a traditional Mexican folkloric art and are often used as an element in the ofrendas/altars in honour of loved ones who have passed on and which play an essential role during Day of the Dead.

Free admission

EXHIBITION
OCT 22-29, 2022
Peter MacKendrick Community Gallery
76 Wychwood Avenue

Exhibition opening: OCT 22, 2022, 7-9pm

Schedule:
OCT 22: 5-9pm
OCT 23: 1-5pm
OCT 24: 2-6pm
OCT 25: 2-6pm
OCT 27: 2-6pm
OCT 28: 2-6pm
OCT 29: 3-9pm

Free admission

CELEBRATION AT UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
OCT 25, 2022, 12:30-1:45pm
Procession-Funeral Band
Hart House & First Nations House

NOV 1, 2022, 1-2pm
Aztec Dance
Great Hall at Hart House
7 Hart House Circle

NOV 2, 2022, 12:30-2pm
Tocani Performance
Santiago “Lobo” Vega
Music Room at Hart House
7 Hart House Circle

Free admission

Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) is a unique Mexican celebration that was declared part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2003. Mixing the solemn with the festive, the folkloric with the sacred, it acknowledges death’s universality and emphasizes the constant and inevitable interweaving of life and death.

The current moment—marked by war, sustained racial and gender violence, accelerated environmental destruction, and the ongoing effects of a global pandemic—invites the careful consideration of life’s fragility, especially in relation to long-standing systemic inequities. In light of this reality, the Día de los Muertos Collective deems the gathering of community—to celebrate life, honour the dead, and recognize the profound connections between the two—as a universal and essential need.

As always, “community” here includes not only those of Mexican, Latinx, or Indigenous heritage. While Day of the Dead is deeply rooted in Mexican culture and history, the Collective considers the celebrations to be of Tkaronto/Toronto: anyone interested in understanding and honouring these traditions forms part of the community that brings the festivities to life.

The celebration’s 2022 thematic focus will highlight global Indigenous struggles, their interconnectedness, resurgence in spite of them, and solidarity with these battles for justice and equity. The Collective is particularly thrilled to this year expand its artistic, ceremonial, and educational offerings in partnership with Hart House and First Nations House at U of T in an effort to contribute to and advance the important work of truth, reconciliation, and renaissance on Turtle Island and beyond.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

Please note that public health recommendations may require last-minute changes to programming.

Photo credits:
Cover: design by Alberto Cruz, Cover photo by Oscar Aguirre, Character design by Que Rock.
Workshop photo by Sara Rodriguez, Gallery photo by Jess Devitt, Virtual Community Altar photo by Marta Orellana.