Celebrating El Día de los Muertos at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Vamp Jenn at the Dia de los Muertos event at Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Vamp Jenn at the Día de los Muertos event at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Since 2000, Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles has been home to the largest Día de los Muertos celebration outside of Mexico, and I attended for the first time this year. For 2022, the festivities centered on Mayahuel, the Aztec goddess of fertility and the agave plant. There were separate daytime and nighttime events happening, and I went to the latter, Noche de los Muertos. It was an evening filled with beautiful performances, rituals, altars, and so much more.

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Channeling Spirits: An Evening Séance at Ipso Facto

Middle image is of a séance conducted by medium John Beattie in Bristol, England in 1872
Middle image is of a séance conducted by medium John Beattie in Bristol, England in 1872

Séances, also known as spirit circles, first gained widespread notoriety during the 19th-century Spiritualist movement in late Victorian England. They were gatherings where individuals sought to contact the “other side” to communicate with the dead. Although some were exposed as nothing but smoke and mirrors, there were devout Spiritualists that took the ritual seriously and strove to tap into a Higher Self. More than 150 years later, the practice is still alive. I recently attended a spirit circle at Ipso Facto, a goth/alternative shop in Fullerton, California, that has been hosting séances for the past two years. I’m going to share my experience, plus my Q&A with shop owner Terri Kennedy. Continue reading “Channeling Spirits: An Evening Séance at Ipso Facto”