America, you are deranged. Instead of lauding and cherishing your elderly, you lock them away in horrible institutions. After death, you pump their corpses full of nasty chemicals and paint them like harlots and prop them up for one last look. Other cultures, which we may collectively deem rustic and unsophisticated, have far more progressive and sensible ways of honoring their recently and not-so-recently departed. Hollywood Forever Cemetery, which puts on fantastic and far-reaching events of all kinds, invites you to embrace “multicultural meditation and rituals of the dead” at their 12th Annual Dia De Los Muertos, where you can not only marvel at incredibly beautiful and complex altars (first prize winner receives $3,000), you can dust off your extra bones and compete for Best Dressed Skeleton, all the while soaking in a death-themed art exhibition, celebratory arts and crafts, and of course, paying homage in some small way to the people that brought you into this world. Hollywood Forever Cemetery, 6000 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlwyd.; Sat., Oct. 22; staggered entry times between noon and 7 p.m.;. $10, children under 6 free,. Tickets:: hollywoodforever.ticketfly.com; (323) 469-1181. www.hollywoodforever.com/

Sat., Oct. 22, 12-7 p.m., 2011

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.