Day of the Dead

The day of the dead is an oxymoron.  Seems to me the very definition of being dead is having no more days, but logic never stopped living humans from constructing reasons to celebrate. And by golly since everyone knows someone who is dead, everybody can celebrate.  We celebrate the "day of the dead" less in America because it is not a retail holiday. America likes retail holidays the best. We like to celebrate holidays that can turn a profit. 

Lest we forget Mother's Day was an invention of the Hallmark Greeting card company, designed to sell more cards.   Think about the marketing of candy companies for Valentine's Day, costume shops for Halloween and Flowers for Mothers day. They also cross market with Flowers for Valentine's Day and candy for Halloween;  You get the point.

Unfortunately we can't send cards to dead people. and no product has been able to co-opt the "day of the dead" as its own.  Having a College degree in marketing, I can tell you that a lot of marketing techniques are based on guilt. Living people provide more guilt than dead people can. The dead can't complain they never get a card, flowers, candy or a call from their kids anymore because... well, they're dead.  Perhaps it is as simple as that. 

That is not to say -  there is no money to be made on the dead. Elvis is raking in more money now than when he had to tour. Marilyn Monroe can claim the same tax bracket among the choir invisible. 

Halloween is over till next year, so this is one last chance to close with a dead joke.  A dead joke for Day of the Dead:

St. Peter arrives at the Pearly Gates early to see a longer line than usual. He needs to separate the new arrivals so he can assign them wings and says, "We're taking couples first. Wives in this line, husbands in this one." Then he divides the men into two lines and says,

"Over here the men who were obedient to their wife and always did what she told them to do. Over there they guys who never obeyed their wives." 

Hundreds of men line up in the obedient line, except for one guy. He occupies the only place in the disobedient cue. St Peter is interested. He walks up to the guy and says, "Wow. We see very few of your kind, Tell me how you got here."  

The guy says,

"My wife told me to stand here. The line is shorter." 

Okay, it may not be the best Day of the Dead joke you hear today, but it is  not political, racist, obscene, anti/pro religious and not really sexist. Perhaps that is why it is not so funny.
Buenos día de los muertos

As you were,

Jay