National Gallery of Canada Marks Day of the Dead as Ottawa Turns 200

The National Art Gallery in Ottawa hosted a free Day of the Dead event on Oct. 29, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., pairing the Mexican tradition with the city's 200th birthday celebrations. The Embassy of Mexico co-hosted.

It was an evening with a double purpose: honour the dead, and toast a city. Ottawa is celebrating its bicentennial. Day of the Dead — the Mexican tradition of remembering deceased loved ones, held around Nov. 2 — approached on the calendar. The gallery decided both belonged in one room.

"Culture can be a bridge between people and there's a vibrant Mexican and Hispanic community in Ottawa and Gatineau and the region around us," said David Gillanders, the event's coordinator, who works for the National Art Gallery.

What did the event actually offer?

Visitors got art displays and traditional dance. The dances honour ancestors and, in the tradition's own framing, create a bridge between life and death. Live music included Mexican forms such as mariachi and música norteña (regional northern Mexican band music).

"Other people are very happy to see the Mexican people show the dances, show the music, sing a lot of music like a Mexican song as the Mariachi, Música norteña," said Solange Lopez, a Mexican dancer and member of FMXMTlL.

Beyond the performances, Gillanders said the gallery holds artwork celebrating Mexican artists, giving visitors additional depth on the culture. The evening, in short, was built as a doorway rather than a one-off show.

Why the date itself is the story

The quieter news is procedural, and procedural news lasts. Both Ottawa and Gatineau have issued a proclamation naming Nov. 2 the official Day of the Dead — the culmination of sustained lobbying.

"We have been pushing the Embassy of Mexico, we have been pushing the mayor of Ottawa and the mayor of Gatineau, a proclamation of Nov. 2 as the official Day of the Dead, so this has been a great accomplishment because both cities recognize the huge impact that this tradition has in the people of Canada," said Ingrid Berlanga-Vasile, a staff member at the Embassy of Mexico.

Two municipal proclamations are not decoration. They give the tradition an annual civic anchor across the National Capital Region, which means next October's edition likely won't need to explain itself.

For a national institution, the calculus is simple. A free, three-hour evening that draws on a local Hispanic community in Ottawa, Gatineau and the surrounding region — during the city's 200th anniversary year — does the public-service work that lecture series attempt and rarely achieve. Art brought people together; so, evidently, did the dancers and the mariachi.

The gallery's Mexican holdings remain on view. The dead, as the tradition holds, were honoured.