Skeleton-scaping with Pixan

* En la Hacienda Henequenera del Parque Xcaret
*At Xcaret Parks` Henequen Hacienda

The Children`s Pavilion: Calacreando con Pixan [Skeleton-scaping with Pixan] to open

*Four days of workshops and humorous activities at 100 kids per hour

By Alejandra Flores

`Art is an efficient teaching tool`, says Emilio Lomé, writer and cultural promoter in charge of the Children`s Pavilion: Calacreando con Pixan [Skeleton-scaping with Pixan], one of the most applauded initiatives of the 3rd Life and Death Traditions  Festival, Xcaret 2008.  This magical pavilion will be open from October 30th to November 2nd in Xcaret Park`s `Hacienda Henequenera`.

The hallways, patios and rooms inside the `Hacienda Henequenera`., built to receive the exquisite collection of the House of Mexican Folk Art museum, will be inaugurated with revelry, games, smiles, creativity and the laughter of the more than 2,500 children expected to visit the Children`s Pavilion during the four-day festival.

That`s because the Children`s Pavilion: Skeleton-scaping with Pixan will be manned by dozens of volunteers in charge of simultaneously directing five different workshops:  creating a Day of the Dead altar through the engineering in paper; preparing a Mayan Calendar based on the birth date of each young artist; creating a candleholder from recycled materials; and preparing the tree of the ancient ones, a Cottonwood, out of cardboard.  The fifth workshop is dedicated to preparing reproductions of jewelry found in pre-Hispanic tombs, a fun way of learning about Mesoamerican mythology and ancient rituals.

Of course, the Children`s Pavilion is much more than workshops: it will also feature a mural art exhibition entitled Niños mayas pintan el Hanal Pixan [Mayan Children paint Hanal Pixan], created for the 3rd Life and Death Traditions Festival, with the participation of several Mayan communities from Quintana Roo.

And since we`re talking about art, the interactive features of the Children`s Pavilion will also fascinate visitors, as will the three plays presented there: Kukulkán desciende al Xibalbá [Kukulkan descends to Xibalbá], Fragmentos del Popol Vuh [Fragments of the Popol Vuh, the Mayan Bible] and Zoología fantástica de ultratumba [The Fantastic Animals of the Underworld]. The pavilion will also have tables to play Memory with cards depicting the characters that live in Xibalbá and, of course, Bingo – Day of the Dead style and another dedicated to famous Mexican engraver José Guadalupe Posada, creator of La Catrina [or Lady Death]. Parades and dances from the Great Beyond and the not so beyond make up the so-called Rumba de ultratumba or The Afterlife Rumba, which will both receive and say goodbye to the Pavilion`s visitors.