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It’s weird to some people: the fact that today, All Saints Day, is an official holiday for Orleans Parish parochial schools. In a normal year, you’d see hordes of children–most in school uniforms, but some dressed more formally–trudging into cemeteries around the city to tidy the graves of their ancestors. This, however, is not a normal year, and I have a sneaking suspicion that today will be a working day at most schools–which is too bad, really, ’cause with all the tree limbs and dead plants and high water marks, many of those graves could use some extra TLC.

That’s not to say that the day isn’t going to be celebrated. Voodoo priestess Sallie Ann Glassman will hold her traditional ceremony honoring the Day of the Dead (a slightly more pagan, less poetic name for November 1). If you’re interested, here’s the details:

• Time: 7:00pm

• Place: 3319 Rosalie Alley (off of Rampart, between Piety and Desire)

• Events: Day of the Dead ceremony, followed by a potluck supper, followed by a procession to St. Roch Cemetery to feed the dead

• What to bring: rum (especially Barbancourt); goat cheese; flatbreads;
  peppers or hot, spicy food; cigars; sunglasses with one lens; crosses;
  funerary items; money; images of St. Gerard; skulls; skeletons; purple
  black and white candles

• What to wear: white with a purple headscarf, or black, purple, and white (though Sallie Ann says that if all your purple and white is covered in black mold, by all means, come as you are)

• More info: call 858 334 5660 or visit the Island of Salvation Botanica at 835 Piety Street

Of course, some of you may remember that back in July, Sallie Ann led a hurricane ceremony, intended to protect New Orleans from violent storms. She says that ceremony worked, to an extent, because Katrina wasn’t technically “The Big One.” On the surface, that sounds like a bit of face-saving, but knowing Sallie a little, I imagine she’d also readily admit that the gods are fickle and don’t always give us what we want. Maybe someone should take this up with her tonight, since I can’t be there….