Celebrating Day of the Dead at Forest Home Cemetery

This past Saturday there was a big Day of the Dead celebration being held in Forest Home Cemetery.

There was a lot going on, like music, dancing, vendors, cars, and many decorations.

You know, as I'm looking at her, I'm thinking parts of her outfit might be made from brightly colored duct tape. Maybe I just have that "Stuck at Prom" event from Duck Duct Tape in my head, but that's what this looks like.

One of the first things we saw after driving through the cemetery was this awesome old building. This building is part arboretum and part chapel. It wasn't overly labeled as a chapel, but you could tell.

The front of this is so German. I haven't found how old this building is yet, but I did read that discussions for planning the cemetery began in 1847. Milwaukee wasn't even established until 1848! The cemetery officially opened in 1850. I wish I would have thought to look for a stone with a date on it. I just looked that up and they're called datestones. That should be easy to remember. I used to notice datestones all the time on other old Milwaukee churches.

This is a favorite photo of the building because of the angle and that perfect autumn tree.

This is a close-up of the top of the building. How great are these details? I love everything about this, the gingerbread wood cut-outs, the metalwork, those window frames.

And speaking of great windows, check out the arboretum from the inside! Can you imagine keeping plants in here? There was a sort of crank system by the ceiling. You can see it here with the pulleys. Those could be used to open the roof panels.

 

I can't get enough of these windows! Look how glittery the glass is.

 

OK, so beyond my fascination with the architecture of this building... Inside there were a number of ofrendas and displays.

I like these hand-crafted skeletons because they're all different. You won't see any two that are the same.

Into the main chapel area here... Check out this amazing ofrenda! This is the most impressive one of these I've ever seen. It was massive.

Just look at all this! The garlands, the layers, the little Catrinas.

 

Here's an especially glamorous one.

And how about these windows! I went on about how impressed I was by the arboretum, but the chapel area was really well designed too. I just liked how I felt in this building.

 

Here's a view of the ceiling.

Neat hanging light fixture too. I'd like to see what this place looks like inside at night.

Some more views of the arboretum:

 

 

 

There was a car show with the cars all decked out with skeleton decorations.

Look at this amazing paint job! I'm not sure how much it comes through, but the car was super glittery.

Check out the driver!

The eyes!

She was resting inside the hood:

The (plastic) marigold-lined path:

This little guy was standing by the floral arch.

How perfect is this tree reaching over the arches?

This lady was strolling along as La Catrina. Doesn't she look nice next to that archway?

 So pretty with the bright magenta and yellow. 🌻

I like those flowers along the bottom of her skirt. And I think those are black feathers underneath?

Check out the glowing eyes on that skull!

 

 

 

How perfect is her purse?

 

There were people selling art, crafts, jewelry, and food up and down the street. I didn't get too close a look at a lot of the booths, but I did notice some decorations.

There was a parade with a band and dancers.

Speaking of dancers, there were also Aztec dancers. We missed seeing them dance; they were more  walking around by the time we got there. But still, it was cool to see what they were wearing.

He's a spooky one. It looked like this guy was wearing white contacts.

His back:

A little closer...

I never did see the front of this lady. I was looking up what was going on near her feet and found a few results. They appear to be foot rattles made from seed pods or nuts. Names for them include Ayoyotes, chachayotes, hueseras, or coyoltin.

 

 

 

I've used some of that same bling to decorate some storage boxes.

There were a number of giant paper flowers hanging around. These looked especially cool next to the red berries on this tree.

As you probably noticed, there was papel picado hanging just about everywhere. It looked so festive waving in the trees.

 

This cut-out is especially cute with the skeleton couple, candles, and hearts. I just noticed the tiny little skulls in the lace fringe.

I'm looking at this photo now and noticing the metal scrollwork above the banner. Someone must have brought this stand, because it doesn't look like it would be part of an older cemetery.

 

 

Love her! She's so sassy with her hands on her hips.

 

I didn't take many photos of the actual cemetery because it was so parked up! I couldn't believe how many cars were lining the road, and they weren't adding anything to the view. Maybe if I have a chance on a less populated day I'll take more photos. But here are a few anyway!

There were a number of artistic stone carvings and the cemetery seemed to go on and on. They do several specialty tours, like showing the graves of the beer barons or other notable people buried there. The self-guided tour would be interesting too. It's hard to know which I'd prefer. I can tell from their web site that this is a very welcoming place.

The Forest Home cemetery web site is worth a peek, especially the history section:

https://foresthomecemetery.com/history/