Day of the Dead Traditions and Celebrations
Liliandra Gage (7)
The Day of the Dead is a traditional holiday on November first and November second in which to honor family members that have passed away. Families build altars with their passed loved ones’ favorite food and drinks. Around the altars you can decorate with flowers, sugar skulls, lights, and any other things that your loved one may have enjoyed.
The Day of the Dead, also known as Dia de los Muertos, is actually celebrated in Mexico. It’s a celebration of life and death. It is celebrated in Latin America, with many skulls and skeletons. The meaning of the skulls is death and rebirth. They use them on the altars as an offering to the soul to remember the loved one that has passed.
There are multiple symbols for Dia de los Muertos. For example, sugar skulls can be offered for the sweet treat and home baked comforts, like sweet bread, which are transitional treats are also shared. In addition, colorful banners which are punched paper to cut patterns and shapes, are used to decorate with. Lastly, there is the dancing icon La Catrina. La Catrina is a female skeleton with a flower hat. It has become the symbol for death in Mexico. Lots of people dress up like her for Halloween and do all The Day of the Dead makeup to look like her. Chloe Mendoza dressed up as one for Halloween this year and said, “I saw lots of pictures of people and I really enjoyed how it looked so I decided to just try it out.” Seems like she really liked how her makeup turned out!
Another thing people enjoy is the food. There are a lot of different foods people make during The Day of the Dead, like “Pan Muertos.” It is a loaf sprinkled with sugar with different decorations on top. One of my favorite foods is tamales; they are very popular during The Day of the Dead. If you don’t know what they are, it’s a wrap with masa inside of a corn husk. There are many different flavors of tamales that are very good. Another thing some people may enjoy is Sopa Azteca, a tortilla soup. You can put your own ingredients to create it how you like. Most people like to put lime, avocado, chicharrons, and onions in there soup.
Many people that I know celebrate The Day of the Dead for their grandma. Miah Evan loved her grandma very much every year during Dia de Los Muertos; her family makes an altar for her. They put lots of sweet treats because her grandma loved making them. They also put lots of beautiful lights around it.
Do you have anyone you honor during Dia de Los Muertos, and if so, do you do any of these things? Hopefully you’ve learned many things about The Day of the Dead that you didn’t know before. Maybe you can start honoring people that have passed and know why they make altars for them.