Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead for those who don't remember their high school Spanish), is a Mexican festival honoring the dead. It coincides with the Catholic observances of All Saints Day on Nov. 1 and All Souls Day on Nov. 2.
As part of her instruction on culture, Lowry Spanish teacher Amie Godinez tasked her students last week with creating traditional Mexican Day of the Dead folk crafts. Her Spanish I students made both sugar and tissue skulls, and her Spanish II classes made maracas resembling skulls. Spanish III students made papel picado (cut paper banners depicting anything from butterflies to skeletons) and puerco espínes (porcupine figurines in the Oaxacan style).
Spanish IV students embellished matchboxes with sequins and beads, decorated mini ceramic skulls and made coronas, a tissue wreath decoration for altars and graves.
With the vivid hues of the papel picado hanging from the ceiling, the brightly decorated maracas, the glittering beads and shiny sequins on the stark white sugar skulls, Godinez's classroom was transformed into a Mexican festival of color and death.
The festival, however, is not necessarily a sad one for the Mexican people. More, it is a homecoming for loved ones. It is similar, said Godinez, to Memorial Day in the United States, but with more traditions.
Gravestones are cleaned and decorated with flowers and other adornments. Altars are built and sugar skulls are made. Families camp out all night at the cemetary and exchange stories. The Day of the Dead is a time to rejoice when the souls of the dead return for a night of fun and remembrance with their family.
Godinez said the students enjoyed learning about another culture and taking a break from conjugating verbs and memorizing how to ask directions to the library.
This year, Godinez created an altar. Normally, the altar would commemorate a dearly departed person, and be festooned with their favorite foods, drinks and mementos of their earthly life. The altar in the Spanish classroom is a "generic" one, said Godinez and holds many items symbolic for the Day of the Dead celebration.
Candles are important to the altar as they light the way for the departed soul returning to their family. Marigolds, silk ones for Godinez's classroom, are the flowers of the dead, and the scent of the real ones also serve a sort of guidepost.[[In-content Ad]]
