{"id":321935,"date":"2025-10-21T19:36:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T19:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/321935\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T19:36:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T19:36:20","slug":"phillys-magic-gardens-to-honor-dia-de-los-muertos-with-ofrenda-and-crafts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/321935\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly’s Magic Gardens to honor D\u00eda de los Muertos with ofrenda and crafts"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s something, well, magical, about The Philadelphia Magic Gardens<\/a>, home to Isaiah Zagar\u2019s<\/a> largest mosaic mural in the city. And this week, the gardens will get even more spiritually vibrant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The PMG is collaborating with artist Ivonne Pinto-Garc\u00eda<\/a> for D\u00eda de los Muertos, Mexico\u2019s Day of the Dead, which honors our ancestors who have died.<\/p>\n

Pinto-Garc\u00eda hails from San Mart\u00edn Texmelucan de Labastida, in Puebla, and moved to Philly in 2005. She is an active community organizer \u2014 promoting Hispanic art and spreading Mexican culture in the city. For years, she has been collaborating with the PMG for its Day of the Dead celebrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m from a place in Mexico City where we\u2019re born seeing and participating in these festivities,\u201d she said in a translated statement. \u201cIt\u2019s part of my tradition and culture, which I now share with my daughter, family and friends in Philadelphia.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Magic Gardens will feature a special ofrenda \u2014 a colorfully decorated Mexican altar to honor ancestors made by Pinto-Garc\u00eda in the back of its museum \u2014 from Oct. 22 to Nov. 3. Visitors can leave notes and photos to honor family members and loved ones who are no longer with us.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sugar Skull Workshops at PMG (Courtesy of the Philadelphia Magic Gardens)<\/p>\n

As a girl, Pinto-Garc\u00eda would watch her mother cook red rice with vegetables and lay out clean tablecloths and new clay dishware for D\u00eda de los Muertos. She remembers her father lighting incense to call her grandmother\u2019s spirit, and smelling \u201cthe aromas of copal, guava, bread and sugar cane \u2014 along with the coffee they served for my abuela.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCreating the ofrenda is a very intimate ritual for me,\u201d she said. \u201cWhere I connect with my family, calling out to them so they know I\u2019m waiting for them with much love \u2014 thanking them for their lives and the love they left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, the PMG is featuring its first-ever Day of the Dead Crafting Party, where visitors can workshop their own sugar skulls and paper flowers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really hard not to try to eat the sugar skulls because they look so delicious,\u201d said Allison Boyle, the events and marketing manager at PMG. \u201cWe use a lot of different materials. We have all different colored icing that you can put on the sugar skulls and sequins and feathers and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s looks different, which is really fun to see,\u201d Boyle said, adding that the paper flowers are easier to create than they look.<\/p>\n

\"\"PMG Sugar Skull Workshop at the Studio (Courtesy of the Philadelphia Magic Gardens)<\/p>\n

The workshop takes place this Saturday, Oct. 25. There will also be a Day of the Dead-themed scavenger hunt and guided tours of the Magic Gardens. Pinto-Garc\u00eda is excited to bring this tradition back to Philadelphia, and provide a community space for Mexican people and immigrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt fills my heart to hear the moms talk about when we were little and made flowers or secretly ate sugar skulls,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In many ways, the PMG\u2019s collaboration with Pinto-Garc\u00eda is a natural extension of what Zagar\u2019s mosaics are all about.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur founding artist Isaiah and his wife travel to Mexico regularly and have a really strong connection with a lot of artists there,\u201d Boyle said. \u201cAnd as a result, we have a lot of beautiful Mexican folk art in our space, and so we want people to kind of learn a little bit more about that, as well as the holiday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pinto-Garc\u00eda echoed this idea, saying that Zagar\u2019s space highlights Mexican folklore and \u201cspeaks just by looking at it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Mexican Folk art at the Magic Gardens Museum (Courtesy of the Philadelphia Magic Gardens)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows and has traveled to our Mexican lands from the center to the south to understand, study and showcase the beauty of my culture,\u201d she said. \u201cOne can feel at ease because they speak Spanish and display Mexican masks, alebrijes, and a whole series of original Mexican art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly, one does not have to know about Zagar\u2019s connection to Mexico to feel it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if you ever travel to Mexico, you see all the details and the colors,\u201d Boyle said. \u201cIt definitely looks like our space, which is really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boyle also wants visitors to know that this Saturday the Magic Gardens aims to be a safe space for immigrants and the Mexican community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a really scary time for a lot of people,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have talked to our staff about how to handle if ICE shows up \u2014 how they don\u2019t need to be admitted into the building, so we are prepared in that way. And we just want people to know that no matter your background, you are welcome here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"D\u00eda de los Muertos paper flowers (Courtesy of the Philadelphia Magic Gardens)<\/p>\n

For Pinto-Garc\u00eda, creating a community space for Mexican families to celebrate the spiritual holiday is an act of perseverance.<\/p>\n

\u201cA safe place is a feeling of being part of a family; it\u2019s knowing that your time away from home means returning safely to your loved ones,\u201d she said. \u201cSafe spaces are a sign of dignity, resilience and the strength families possess. Being in safe places is a way to embrace everyone who gathers to enjoy and prepare to celebrate their ancestors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Magic Gardens\u2019 Day of the Dead Crafting Party takes place Saturday, Oct. 25, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Tickets are available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s something, well, magical, about The Philadelphia Magic Gardens, home to Isaiah Zagar\u2019s largest mosaic mural in the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":321936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,124899,133055,1322,161062,161063,10672,1448,2830,1311,53869,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-321935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-day-of-the-dead","10":"tag-dia-de-los-muertos","11":"tag-featured","12":"tag-isaiah-zagar","13":"tag-ivonne-pinto-garcia","14":"tag-mexican-folk-art","15":"tag-pa","16":"tag-pennsylvania","17":"tag-philadelphia","18":"tag-philadelphia-magic-gardens","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115413843103747756","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}