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FACTBOX: The Day of the Dead’s global spread

MANILA (Reuters Life!) – It’s the Day of the Dead in the Philippines, but this festival is more for the living, who throng cemeteries to picnic and commune with their loved ones.

The feast, also known as All Saint’s Day or All Soul’s Day, is little-known elsewhere in Asia but is a national holiday in the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines.

After lighting candles and praying at the tombs of their loved ones, Filipino families spend the whole day in the country’s graveyards, eating and chatting.

“We celebrate this every year, no fail. We all come here together and bring food, and we stay all day,” said Lolita Capoquian, who came to pay her respects to her daughter who was killed in a car accident 14 years ago.

The Day of the Dead festival has its origins in a pre-Hispanic belief that the dead return to earth one day each year to visit their loved ones.

Observed by Catholic communities around the world, thousands of people celebrate the festival on Nov 1 and 2.

In Manila, traffic is gridlocked around cemeteries and street vendors do a roaring trade in food, flowers and candles. North Cemetery is the city’s biggest, attracting up to 3 million visitors during the two-day feast.

Despite the party atmosphere, many Filipinos said the festival helped them keep in touch with their loved ones from beyond the grave.

“Our parents have both passed away, so we come here every year on All Souls Day, that’s all we can do for them. It’s like we’re still taking care of them even if they’re gone,” said Gina Bantaw at her family’s graves.

KENNY & THE KIDS

Museum celebrates Day of the Dead
Entertainment, art cars, march and more are planned tonight

By Ken Neuhauser
kneuhauser@courier-journal.com
The Courier-JournaL

 

The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft invites the public to celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) with a pretty neat assortment of activities that should delight young and old alike.

The event, from 5 to 9 tonight at the downtown museum, will feature fire dancers, face painting, puppets and a display of those cleverly designed art cars. Feel free to wear costumes and masks.

Day of the Dead might sound a bit morbid, but it is a joyous holiday that originated in Mexico and blends native Aztec and Roman Catholic traditions and beliefs to celebrate and honor the lives of deceased friends and family members. In this tradition death is not seen as an end but rather a new stage of life. Day of the Dead celebrations can vary from country to country due to cultural differences.

A sugar-skull contest also is planned. Making sugar skulls is a traditional Mexican folk art that celebrates the Day of the Dead. The sugar skulls are made from molds and then colorfully decorated with such items as foil, icing, sequins, feathers and beads.

Other highlights will include live music by guitarist Marlon Obando, additional music and dancing from the group Camino Flamenco and complimentary refreshments.

Last Friday the museum began constructing a public altar in honor of loved ones who have died. Such altars typically contain pictures of relatives and friends, flowers, food, candy and family mementos. Visitors are encouraged to bring items for the altar installation, which is in the third-floor education center lobby.

Also tonight the museum will offer a candle-lit march to commemorate the dead.

Admission is free.

The museum is at 715 W. Main St. For more information, call (502) 589-0102 or visit http://www.kentuckyarts.org/. The museum’s Day of the Dead event is in conjunction with the First Friday Trolley Hop. +

IU students celebrate ‘Day of the Dead’

“We will be observing and learning about the traditions of the Aztec people, the decorating of the grave site, the altar building from Mexico and Bolivia and much more.” Rebeca Hernandez, Foster Global Village resident adviser Halloween might be over, but the link between the living and the dead is not yet broken.Today is El Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead.Observed in most Latin American countries, this is a day of honoring one’s ancestors and celebrating their lives. Beginning at 7 p.m. today, Foster Residence Center’s Formal Lounge will host an El Dia de los Muertos program to commemorate the holiday and explain its significance. The tradition of honoring and celebrating the lives of the dead originated in the indigenous cultures of Mexico and several other Latin American countries, said Rebeca Hernandez, Foster Global Village resident adviser. “Death was not seen as the ultimate end of a person’s existence but rather as a re-birth into another world of the dead,” she said. In more modern times, El Dia de los Muertos falls on the same day as All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, traditional Catholic holidays, Hernandez said. Several Latino communities spend their holiday at cemeteries where their ancestors are buried, decorating the graves and offering traditional Day of the Dead foods, flowers and herbs, she said. “Others build beautiful altars for their ancestors in their homes and invite family and friends to come over and celebrate with feasting and praying,” she said. “The goal of all of these activities is to invite the dead to enjoy the fruits of living once again and let them know that they are still cherished.” This year, the theme of the Foster celebration is showing the diversity of Day of the Dead celebrations, Hernandez said. “We will be observing and learning about the traditions of the Aztec people, the decorating of the grave site, the altar building from Mexico and Bolivia and much more,” she said. Attendees of the celebration can participate in different Day of the Dead crafts, such as creating sugar skulls and sampling pan de muerto, or bread of the dead. This celebration of the dead is becoming an IU tradition, Hernandez said. “In the past, we have even dedicated altars to Herman B Wells,” she said. “It is important to share with the IU community because it is an alternative way to view a very sensitive subject while building community among IU students and staff as we realize we are all just people with our own losses in life.” Hernandez said that El Dia de Los Muertos is a time for her to share the grieving of her ancestors with other people in a way that honors and celebrates their lives before and after death. “Since it is a festive holiday, I always leave with a more positive understanding of the process of life,” she said. “I believe my ancestors wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”

DAWN OF THE DEAD: Darkness of mourning broken by festive spirit

 Jennifer L. Berghom

November 2, 2007 – 12:18AM

Graciela Garcia spent her four decades as an educator fighting for low-income students to receive the education they deserve. The school bearing her name wants to make sure she and her work are not forgotten.

Garcia Elementary School is honoring her memory by building an altar in her honor to mark Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead.

The Pharr-San Juan-Alamo schools educator taught and directed the district’s federal programs for 40 years before retiring in 2001. She stood out as an advocate for low-income and disadvantaged students, according to Yolanda Castillo, a friend of the late educator and principal of the school that is named after her. Garcia died shortly after her retirement.

“She was a true advocate for the less fortunate. … I know she’s looking down on us all the time,” Castillo said.

A group of mothers who help at the school spent more than a week collecting photos and keepsakes and building the altar, which they presented to students on Wednesday.

Claudia Luengo, one of the mothers, said she and the others spent about a week talking with Garcia’s friends and family to find out how to decorate the altar. As is customary with Día de los Muertos altars, decorations are based on the deceased’s hobbies and other passions in life.

Over the years, the age-old altar tradition has become more popular throughout the area and the United States. Locally, museums have allowed people in the community to decorate altars for loved ones and have held special presentations for students to learn about the holiday.
Garcia’s daughter, Yomara Garcia, a biology teacher at PSJA High School, said she learned about her mother’s altar earlier this week and thinks what the school is doing is “awesome.”

“(The school administration and staff) always made sure (students) knew who the school was named after,” she said. “When I heard about the altar I was honored. … I think what they’re doing is helping the kids own the school.”

At the Museum of South Texas History in Edinburg, more than a dozen altars made by people in the community are set to be on display until next week. The altars range from traditional to modern styles.

Some were made by students as a class project; others were made by family members wanting to honor a loved one who died. Some artists have even been commissioned to create altars, said Melissa Tijerina, the museum’s programs and special events officer.

The museum’s exhibit has grown from just a few to about 15 in the past few years, she said.
“The altars are breathtaking, and now it seems the tradition is just growing,” Tijerina said. “It’s as much about the living as it is about the dead.”

The tradition dates back hundreds of years, to when the indigenous peoples of the New World had numerous practices honoring the dead. When the Spanish conquistadores arrived, they were puzzled by the practices and found them disrespectful.

But over the years, those practices were blended with the Catholic faith and Día de los Muertos is now celebrated immediately following Nov. 1’s All Saints Day.

Many celebrate by creating altars decorated with sugar skulls, candles, a cup of water, flowers, pictures of the deceased and items the departed one liked in life. People also visit the graves of their loved ones.

Tijerina said the holiday provides an ongoing connection among family members, living and dead.
“It’s not a sinister holiday. Many have this misconception that it is associated with Halloween; it’s not, it’s a festive day,” she said.

This is the first time Garcia Elementary has worked on a campus-wide project. Before, like many other schools, individual classes had separate activities.

Garcia Elementary students helped the parents decorate the altar honoring the school’s namesake. They also adorned their cafeteria with pictures and stories the fourth-grade classes wrote about loved ones who died.

Día de los Muertos altars don’t always have to be dedicated to family members. Students also build altars for public figures, and learn some history in the process.

Students in Janet Bosch’s class at McAllen’s Gonzalez Elementary, for example, created an altar honoring baseball player Roberto Clemente.

Bosch said her students chose to build the altar to him because of the humanitarian work he did and because he died in a plane crash en route to help others in Central America.

They spent a week or so researching Clemente’s life and the origins of Día de los Muertos.
“They’ve got a lot of connection to it,” she said.

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Jennifer L. Berghom covers education and general assignments at The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4462.