New Orleans-based Vodou society La Source Ancienne Ounfo has announced November 1 as the date for this year’s Day of the Dead/Fet Gede event. In the last 36 years, the celebration of those who’ve left us has expanded and this year is being housed at New Orleans Healing Center instead of the temple in Rosalie Alley. 

The annual celebration honors the spirits of the dead much like Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos, and though it includes a full-on Vodou ceremony for the spirit who rules over death and regeneration, all are welcome to the multicultural affair. Mexico’s Day of the Dead coincides with Vodou’s festival for the gede, a family of Haitian Vodou spirits. In Haiti, the entire month of November is dedicated to remembering ancestors and those who’ve died but the high ceremonies generally take place during the first week. According to tradition, in honoring the dead, we embrace the meaning of our own lives and open space for generations yet to come. 

As such, the New Orleans Healing Center (2372 St. Claude Ave.) has opened its lobby for the free Day of the Dead Celebration on Wednesday, November 1. Despite its theme, the event is family friend and children are invited and those in attendance can expect to experience a wide range of stuff, including happy hour at the Spotted Cat, altars by a handful of artists, a “Day of the Dead” market, live musical performances, a pot-luck dinner, and more.

More information – including notes about what to bring and what to wear – can be found at the event’s website. For those wondering what exactly to bring as offerings to the Gede, the spirits have been known to enjoy the following: rum, cigars, sunglasses with one lens, top hats, flat breads, skeletons, skulls, peppers, Day of the Dead figurines, crosses, coffins, coffin nails, goat cheese, and goat stew.