Created by Patricia Erigero, Midnight Hour Graphics
This is a color scheme designed for Kaleidscope 1.7.3 (and later versions), a shareware control panel created by Greg Landweber, Fred Bass and Amargosa Software. It will work with versions 1.5 and up, but is best viewed at 1.7 at up.
De Los Muertos (Of The Dead) was designed to use during those few days at the end of October and early November, as the dead of winter rise(s). It was inspired by the celebratory aspects of El Dîa de Los Muertos, which has always struck me as a healthy way to deal with death. Not so healthy, but another inspiration (for you literary types), was one of this century's greatest works of fiction, Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry, which takes place during El Dîa de Los Muertos in the late 1930s. A tolerably good film, with a great opening graphical sequence, was made of this book by John Huston in 1984; it received the Cannes Film Festival award for best film that year. There are a number of sites on the world wide web which address various aspects of El Dîa de Los Muertos; the information at the end of this Read Me is a synopsis from several locations.
* Loosely translates as: To see a wake and to enjoy a dance.
Requirements
Any Macintosh capable of running Kaleidoscope and the
Kaleidoscope 1.5 (or above) control panel, available from http://www.kaleidoscope.net/ De Los Muertos was created to use with 256 colors or more. The patterns in the menus and the menu bar will not be visible in any version of Kaleidoscope lower than 1.7, and further, a number of small bugs with earlier versions of Kaleidoscope have been resolved in 1.7.3, making this, or a later version, the one recommended for this scheme. The resources have been included for lower color bit modes, but will undoubtedly look bad. As with all software (and Kaleidoscope schemes), use it at your own risk.
Installation
Drop the scheme (NOT this read-me) into the Kaleidoscope color schemes folder located inside your extensions folder (in your system folder). Drag it into your color scheme folder, close the folders, open the control panel, and select the scheme's icon. I've also included a couple of desktop patterns, which should be dragged onto your open desktop pattern control panel and selected to take effect. This scheme also has custom icons (De Los Muertos With); beginning with Kaleidoscope version 1.7.3, you should no longer have to restart your Mac for the icons to appear in Mac Os8.
De Los Muertos is shareware, not freeware. For $10.00 you have the right to use De Los Muertos and any other Kaleidoscope schemes I create. Make your check (in U.S. dollars, drawn on a U.S. bank; cash is also acceptable) payable to Patricia Erigero, and send it to:
Patricia Erigero
27717 Road 92F
Winters CA 95694
Registered users periodically receive "thank you" schemes, created with all, if not more, of the attention the publicly-released schemes get. The first of these, Les Heures d'Automne, is now available via e-mail, upon receipt of registration. Another is slated for release in December, 1997.
Version History
Version 1.0. October 6, 1997. This is the first version of De Los Muertos. No doubt there will be additional ones.
How to Reach Me and See My Schemes
Midnight Hour Graphics schemes are primarily designed in the low-cost paint program Color It!, and then moved into Kaleidoscope where they undergo a number of iterations. Please contact Patricia Erigero if you notice bugs or glitches. I can be reached via e-mail at: pce@ncal.net.
Midnight Hour Graphics web page is located at:
http://www.mother.com/~pce
My schemes, and others, can also be seen and downloaded at:
The Kaleidoscope Scheme Archives
http://www.kaleidoscope.net/
and can be linked to from:
Kaleidoscope Scheme Directory
http://www.akamaidesign.com/kaleidoscope.ksd.html
My schemes are also included at the MacIntosh HyperArchive, at a number of shareware sites on the net, and in several shareware cd-roms recently released, and are periodically and unpredictably featured at such www locations as Chez-Mac, the (now defunct/transformed) MacUser site, and other web sites.
Special Thanks
To the scheme hacker pioneers of Kaleidoscope 1.x.
 
El Día de los Muertos
All Saints' and All Souls' days are celebrated in all Catholic countries, but in Mexico and other Latin American countries, the celebration, which begins the evening of October 31, has special significance.
El Dîa de los Muertos is a time for happiness, remembrance and feasting. Graves and alters to the dead are decorated--laden-- with bright flowers, usually marigolds, but also chyrsanthemums and other colorful fall flowers, gifts, food for the returning dead, and special momentos...photographs, favorite items, and so forth. These offerings, or Ofrendas, symbolize the loving link between the dead and the living. The living celebrate with special foods: candies and special breads are often prepared in the shapes of skulls and decoratively iced. There is a whole body of folk and graphic art associated with the holiday, often featuring skeletons with clothes, doing what the living do...marrying, eating, playing musical instruments...
El Dîa de los Muertos is rooted in pre-Hispanic America. Festivities relating to the cult of the dead in Mexico go back almost 4,000 years. Poetry relating to the transient nature of life and the passage of death was created by the pre-Hispanic poet-philosopher Acomitztli Nezahualcóyotl, and a number of artifacts from various pre-Hispanic cultures have been recovered which display the importance of indigenous peoples' considerations of the nature of life and death.
Instead of abandoning the customs, beliefs, and traditions associated with remembering the dead, indigenous people of Mexico and other South American countries incorporated their Spanish conquerors' Catholic celebration of All Saints' or All Souls' Day, creating a unique festival in which the living celebrate the unity of life and death. This reconciliation of conflicting religious beliefs into El Dîa de los Muertos dates from the 16th century. The pre-Hispanic tradition of relating to the dead was too deeply rooted to be supplanted by the more abstract and formal Catholic holy days.
More El Día de los Muertos
Here are some of Mexican Refranes Y Dichos Populares (Popular Phrases and Sayings) relating to the dead, which appeal to me. A long list of these is posted (in Spanish) on the www at Pixel.Net. The translations, drawing on my high-school Spanish, are probably not exactly accurate, and may provoke more hilarity than the originals.
De aquî a cien años, todos seremos pelones.
A hundred years from now, we'll all be bald.
No es mala la muerte cuando se lleva a quien debe.
Death isn't bad when it comes to someone who deserves it.
No pido pan al hambre, ni chocolate a la muerte.
Don't beg the hungry for bread, nor death for chocolate.
Todos nacemos llorando y nadie se muere riendo.
We're all born crying and none of us die laughing.
