Columnist Susan Snyder: Las Vegas braces for Dead show

Thursday, Oct. 28, 2004 | 8:16 a.m.

Just when the Halloween sugar hangover subsides and the green face paint is put away until next year, residents of Mexican descent are just getting around to displaying their skeletons and ghosts.

And anyone interested in just what Day of the Dead is all about ought to cruise past the Life in Death festival at Las Vegas' Winchester Cultural Center on Monday and Tuesday.

The festival is to commemorate Day of the Dead, celebrated in Mexico the first two days of November. It is a time when people remember and celebrate the lives of relatives who have died.

But don't be surprised if no one is weeping. Laughing, dancing, singing and feasting are the hallmarks of this celebration in which grief takes a holiday.

"This is a festival," said Irma Varela-Wynants, Winchester's cultural specialist. "We really celebrate the life of the people who have passed away."

Perhaps nothing sets the tone better than the logo created for the festival's fourth year. It's a skeleton dressed in a lavender-and-pink showgirl costume. Sort of a "Folies Bergere" meets Frankenstein.

The Winchester center's celebration will feature 25 ofrendas, which are akin to life-size dioramas that commemorate people who have died. It can include offerings of flowers and food but also contains items and objects that remind the living of the things that were important to the departed person.

And, as a matter of tradition, there is a lot of joking around about the deceased also.

"They get really elaborate," Varela-Wynants said. "Mexicans make fun of the dead a lot. But just because we make fun of the dead doesn't mean we didn't suffer."

The ofrendas, or offerings, to be on display Monday and Tuesday, will range in size from 8-by-8 to 16-by-16 and compete for a $500 grand prize. Many are being built by individuals honoring relatives. Others are being built by community groups or school groups, such as students studying Spanish at Sedway Middle School.

The celebration also includes workshops on creating paper flowers, luminares candle holders, Mexican bark painting, skeleton and paper coffin coloring and creation of sugar skulls. Demonstrations of how to make gorditas de nata, a special Day of the Dead bread, also are scheduled.

Performances by dance and musical groups will be going on inside the center, as will an exhibit by Argu, a portrait artist from Mexico.

Las Vegas' Day of the Dead festival started four years ago at Prince of Peace Catholic Church, Varela-Wynants said. Organizers moved it to the Winchester center last year in order to open it up the community at large.

U.S. Census figures show 1 in 4 Southern Nevadans are Hispanic, and nearly 70 percent of those residents are from Mexico.

But residents don't have to be Mexican to join in the fun. At least two of the ofrendas on display are being built by non-Hispanics, Varela-Wynants said. In contrast, another exhibit is being given by a group of descendants of the Zapotec people, a culture that dates back to before the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1519.

The festival is 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. each day at the Winchester Cultural Center, 3130 S. McLeod Drive, Las Vegas. Tickets for dance and musical performances are $3. Everything else is free. For more information call 455-7340.