The First Recipient of Sayulita Life’s $5,000 Monthly Donation: The Dia De Los Muertos Festival 2019
To celebrate Sayulita Life’s 15th year in Sayulita, Sayulita Life began the “Giving Fund” campaign, honoring our value of giving back to the community by pledging to give a donation every month to a different local charity, fundraiser, organization, or cause in Sayulita. The first recipient of this donation was granted on Thursday, May 29th, 2019, toward the Dia De Los Muertos Festival of 2019. This donation will go directly toward the purchase of over 30 kilos of yarn and materials to support the efforts of Sayulita’s goal to create at least 12,000 “Ojos de Dios”, or “Eyes of God” for this year’s Dia De Los Muertos festival.
To find out more about Sayulita Life’s giving back fund please visit Sayulita Life’s “Giving Back” Web Page.
Every year the Dia De Los Muertos celebrations typically have a theme which impacts the festivals’ decorations and traditions. Last year’s festival of 2018 was dedicated to the “fisherman” and people who have been “lost to the sea”. This year’s festival for 2019 is themed around the topic of “cancer and prevention.” This theme was chosen as a way to not only honor our loved ones who have passed or been affected by cancer, but also as a means to educate others on the subject, to encourage prevention and awareness, and initiate discussion and actions regarding our community’s health.
This overarching topic of health will be seen in all of the festivals’ plans and decorative details. For example, the plan for the construction of over 12,000 “Ojos de Dios”, or “Eyes of God” is one way to exemplify this theme. For those that do not know, the “Ojos de Dios” are an important symbol in ancient Mexican culture, as they represent the idea of protection from God. The central meaning is that they have the power to see and understand things “unknown”. The Ojos are made by weaving a design out of yarn upon a wooden cross, typically using many different vibrant colors. This symbol is deeply rooted in the native Huichol culture originating from Jalisco, Mexico. Furthermore, the decision to make the Ojos to decorate the pueblo for this years Dia de Los Muertos Festival was done as a means to attempt to reduce our use of the plastic that typically is used for decorative flags that traditionally have covered the plaza in past Dia De Los Muertos festivals. In this way, the theme of “health” is being seen as universal and far reaching– health is not just for our physical bodies, but the health of the environment, the health of our land and the ocean, and for the community as a whole. This is why the Ojos de Dios have been chosen as this year’s main decoration and symbol of importance.
The entire town is working tirelessly and effortlessly in making these Ojos de Dios, and all across Sayulita in the schools, businesses, and even local families, you will see that people have already begun working on making them months in advance. It is quite impressive to see the whole town coming together in this way. Each Ojo is rather time consuming to make, and uses a lot of yarn, so the goal of making 12,000 to cover the plaza is quite an honorable goal, and furthermore requires a lot of material, which obviously brings an expense.
Thanks to Sayulita Life’s generous donation, the goal of reaching the 12,00 Ojos de Dios has become that much more feasible, as the festival now has the financial resources to purchase enough yarn to complete their objective. We look forward to seeing these efforts come to life in the Dia De Los Muertos Festival in November 2019.
Stay tuned to see what local charity, organization, or cause will receive Sayulita Life’s donation next month. To find out more about Sayulita Life’s giving back fund, or to sign up your local charity or organization for a chance to receive the monthly donation, please visit Sayulita Life’s “Giving Back” Web Page.
*Written by: Aanya Sheikh-Taheri
