We had the partee! Our theme for this year was Death, which sounds terribly goth and morbid... I suppose it was really more "the Lighter Side of Death" a la Mad Magazine. I made comical tombstones to decorate the walls and back yard that were all based on real, existing tombstones in cemeteries - I simply googled "funny tombstones" and got dozens of ideas. They were great fun to read through.
Hubby and I dressed as "new baby zombies" and staggered around moaning about feedings and diapers (almost didn't count as costumes, really). We had an eclectic music mix, for which the only requirement was that the artists be deceased (everything from Buddy Holly and Elvis to the Clash, Janis Joplin to Warren Zevon, Nirvana, Sublime...) and we watched Shawn of the Dead.
And of course almost everyone came in costume. Strange people and monsters partying in a graveyard. Ninjas, unfortunately, outnumbered pirates by two to one. But the pirates had much better outfits.
The deeper reason for the theme was that, perversely, nothing has ever made me more aware of my own mortality than the process of carrying to term and birthing a child. Life feels very fragile, and I've been trying to process this paralyzing fear of death that seems to rise at odd moments. This was, on some level, an exercise in stripping some of the fearfulness from the yawning abyss of the grave.
Besides, it's fun to cut things out of cardboard and foam and paint them. Our garden still has gravestone in it and every time I look out the window it's like we're being haunted by a transient cemetery. |
