Day of the Dead: Remembering Our Animals
This is a special celebration called The Day of the Dead. It’s a Mexican tradition. I can’t wait to share with you all about it.
It’s really very special. For those of you that celebrate it, do you include animals?
For me, it’s so important to not forget the animals that have gone before us.
At first, I was kind of scared of the celebration of the Day of the Dead. It sounds kind of scary and spooky if you don’t understand the meaning of everything.
I think a lot of people recognize the sugar skulls. Those beautifully painted skulls. And then sometimes people would have their face painted white with really pretty colors and maybe a black nose. They might have a skeleton on their clothing.
What are the flowers for? The flowers are marigolds. Usually, you see them as orange, dark orange, or a little lighter orange color. I’ve been told the reason for the marigolds is to attract the people that have gone before us. Our ancestors, friends and family.
Let me share with you a little bit about how I learned about this beautiful tradition. One of my animal communication students, a mother, and a daughter, invited me to their celebration. And I was like, “Okay, sure. I’ll come. What do I do?”
They told me what they do is they have pictures of their loved ones and place them on an “alter”. You may have seen the alters with sugar skulls, photos, orange flowers, candles and some bread. There’s a special bread that they make.
The ceremony began by sharing a photo of the person that you’re remembering and sharing something about them.
I include animals and share things about them, like their favorite food. At this gathering, we were invited to bring a favorite food of the person that died. Such a special connection and remembering. So nice. Then there was a little ceremony where you remember something more about the person/animal.
We sat around a table outside in the dark and we went around the circle sharing something about the person or persons that were in spirit, a favorite food or story, something funny, something special. There was so much love, joy and laughter as the loved ones were brought to life. It was so easy to feel them right there with us. It was just so beautiful.
After the ceremony we went inside and sat around a table sharing the favorite food of the people that we were remembering. Talk about a deep connection! It was like they were just so close and I thought, “let’s remember our animal companions.”
For me, being an animal communicator, if you have an animal companion that’s gone before you, they’re always with us. We can connect with them, we can talk to them, we can listen to them anytime. But I love this special day.
If you have an animal friend, maybe you might make an altar. What are some fun things that you do to remember your animal companions?
I want to share a few things with you about mine. And it might inspire you. You might share some things that you remember about your animal companions.
Who is coming to mind right now? Maybe there’s an animal from your childhood.
This is our kitty Rudy. We have his paw print, and a picture of him.
When somebody passes, there’s always beautiful things that we can do to remember them, keep them close to us. I brought these out as one way to remember my animal companions.
You might think of having your own little celebration of the Day On the Dead or something similar to it.
I want to invite you right now to enjoy a guided meditation to connect us with our animal companions. Those that have gone before us.
In my video here, I share a guided meditation where you can connect very deeply with our animal companions, and you’ll know that they are here with you.
You can do this guided meditation anytime, not just on the Day Of the Dead or All Souls days or any other day that you celebrate.
You can carry this connection, this feeling with you 24/7, because they’re with us and when we’re thinking about them, they’re thinking about us. When they’re thinking about us, we might be thinking about them too. How good is that?
Share your experience in the comments if you like, or you can write to me privately. This is such a great topic.
We miss are animal companions so much, just like our humans that have been in our lives. But the animals that have been in our lives were so special, and to be able to reconnect with them, to remember them, is so important and so special.
It’s about remembering. It’s about celebrating.
