“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside of us while we live.”- Norman Cousins
Are you afraid of death? I know it’s a touching subject and not everyone wants to talk about it.
Some people are. Some people arent. I’m surprisingly not as I’ve accepted it’s going to happen either way but I’m more afraid on how it’s going to happen. Is it going to hurt? Am I going to be surrounded by the people I love and care the most? Although. I dont really think about it much, I think about the life I have now and how much I want to live it before I run out of time.
Some of you may know that I grew up in the Philippines and I came here when I was 12 years old. We didn’t celebrate Halloween —maybe that’s one of the reasons why I love it sooo much because I was deprived of all the dressing up and free candies… and yes, I still trick or treat… (judge all you want) However, we have what we call “All Saints Day” which was normally celebrated on the eve of November 1st. My whole family and I would go to the cemetery and visit our loved ones who has passed and spend the night over there with candles and just relive the moments we had with our loved ones. I was still a child back then and didnt really know much why we do this —all i know is I get to go to the cemetery and play with my cousins and there’s pretty lit candles all around. Now that I’m an adult, I appreciate this practice more.
Now that I live here in Southern California, I learned about “The Day of the Dead” and there’s so much more about the pretty painted faces. I’ve learned that it comes from early cultures’ beliefs about death that later mixed with Christianity. It is based on the idea that the spirits return at that time of year. Customs around Halloween seem to stem from the idea that the spirits were malevolent (children were disguised so that they wouldn’t be harmed), whereas in Day of the Dead festivities, the spirits are joyfully welcomed as family members that one hasn’t seen in a year. So for this shoot, I made a black tight fitted dress with scallop edge hem as I thought it would go with the theme and I wanted it to be a bit more fashion forward. What do you guys think about this dress?
How do you celebrate Halloween? What do you think about these different practices around the world?
XOXO,
Joy