Students and Faculty celebrate La Dia De Los Muertos

Juniors+Emma+Johnson%2C+Shelby+Rome+and+Hannah+Pappert+attend+the+Day+of+the+Dead+festival+at+Mattie+Rhodes+Art+Center.+

Juniors Emma Johnson, Shelby Rome and Hannah Pappert attend the Day of the Dead festival at Mattie Rhodes Art Center.

Isaia Wilcoxen, Editor-in-Chief

Celebration is a tradition among people that has occurred for centuries. There are holidays that celebrate religions, love, thankfulness and even working. However, one unique motive for celebrating is to honor the dead. The Day of the Dead, also known as Dia de los Muertos, is a three-day-long Hispanic celebration beginning Oct. 31 and ending Nov. 2.

According to National Geographic, the Day of the Dead was influenced by a combination of the indigenous Aztec rituals, Catholicism and Spanish conquistadors. The indigenous people of Latin America believed that the gates of heaven open at midnight on Halloween and that the spirits of the deceased children reunited with their families for 24 hours. Then on Nov. 2, the spirits of the deceased adults join them in the festivities.

Although people have different beliefs about the holiday, the meaning behind it is consistent.

“For me the Day of the Dead means that we take our time to think and celebrate for all the people that aren’t with us anymore,” senior Sascha Dean said.

Senior Ivan Cortes-Domivan feels similarly.

“To me, Day of the Dead represents the celebration of lost friends, family members and their accomplishments,” Cortes-Domivan said.

Spanish teacher Elizabeth Schmeltzer said she thought the message of this holiday is inspiring.

“I am fascinated by Day of the Dead,” Schmeltzer said. “I love the concept of celebrating and remembering loved ones that have passed away rather than mourning a loss. To me it is such a positive outlook on the journey of life.”

For some students, religion and heritage motivates their reasons for celebrating.

“I celebrate the Day of the Dead because I am Catholic and Hispanic,” senior Sarah Fuentez said. “I also celebrate it because I have many Spanish relatives, including my grandma and grandpa, who mean the world to me. They are above me and I pray for them and celebrate their lives.”

Although this is a Catholic holiday, Fuentez said it can be celebrated by anyone wishing to honor their deceased relatives.

“I don’t believe you have to be a certain religion to celebrate it,” Fuentez said. “I was baptized Catholic, so that is a big part of why it means a lot to me.”

To honor her grandparents, senior Bianca Quijas partakes in a tradition every year that commemorates their lives.

“My family and I go to the cemetery and put flowers at my great grandparents’ graves before we go to my grandma’s house to eat or hang out with family,” Quijas said.

The holiday is several days long, and usually consists of large festivals and an abundance of decorations.

“At school when I lived in Mexico, the school would have this whole room full with decorations,” Dean said. “The teacher would take us in and we were able to just look at them. The decorations were pretty dope.”

Decorations consist of sugar skulls, purple, blue and yellow art, flags and much more.

“It is also one of the most beautiful celebrations I have ever seen,” Schmeltzer said. “The vibrant colors, cempasúchil, Aztec marigolds [Mexican native flower], candles and elaborate makeup are all very beautiful.”

One major symbol of the holiday is  the colorful sugar skull.

“I find them enticing, because they embrace death when our first instinct is to back away,” senior Bailey Spencer said. “It also shows that we are all the same in the end. The bright colors signify happiness to me, because death is not all bad.”

Fuentez said she enjoys the sugar skulls as well.

“I love the sugar skulls and the colorfulness and just everything about them,” Fuentez said.

To show off her interest in them, Quijas uses face paint to display the skull.

“I face paint a skull on my face, and we [the family] make sugar skulls with multiple colors,” Quijas said.

Another way students celebrate the Day of the Dead is by eating lots of food.

“As a tradition my family and I eat pan de muerto,” Dean said. “It’s so good!”

Pan de muerto is a sweet yeast bread baked and designed to look like a crossbone. More foods include Calaveras de Azucar, which are little chocolates in the shape of sugar skulls, Calabaza en Dulce, which is a pale, orange and yellow squash with a hard shell and Mole Negro, which is a black, spicy sauce usually eaten with Mexican rice.

To celebrate the holiday, junior Emma Johnson attended a Day of the Dead festival at the Mattie Rhodes Art Center.

“The decorations were really festive,” Johnson said. “There were a lot of skulls and it was colorful everywhere. I’ve never seen anything like it in real life.”

To Johnson, observing the festivities made her interested in the holiday.

“It was just cool to be in the environment of all the people celebrating Day of the Dead,” Johnson said. “It was just really fun in general to walk around and experience everything that was there.”

Celebrating the lives of those who are dead may seem odd for some people. However, Spencer said it’s all about keeping a positive mindset in remembering the dead.

“I think most of the time people in America look at death in only a negative way,” Spencer said. “This is a way to celebrate the ones who have passed and think about their lives and what they could be doing now instead of just focusing on the loss.”