Q. What is Día de los Muertos?
A. The Day of the Dead (el Día de los Muertos), is a Mexican holiday where families welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives for a brief reunion that includes food, drink, and celebration. (History.com) People in Mexico started honoring the dead thousands of years ago. They knew that death brings new life and had special months to remember the spirits of loved ones. The Aztecs played instruments made of turtle shells, dried gourds and twigs carved into flutes. Today, the holiday combines old traditions with the Christian holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Soul’s Day. These Christian holidays also honor the dead. Day of the Dead is celebrated on Nov. 2. However, children who have died are sometimes remembered the day before. (Koestler- Grack) One important tradition of Día de los Muertos is the ofrendas, translated as “offerings” or “altars” that people create to hold candles, photos, food offerings and belongings of the dead. They are a way of welcoming the dead. Here in San Marcos, the library will have an ofrenda the week of Nov. 1 for the public. Everyone is invited to come and submit a memory of their loved one(s) in the memory box beside the ofrenda.
Another important tradition is to honor the dead by cleaning up their grave sites or tumbas and decorating for the holiday. A decoration that is popular, especially on the ofrendas, is papel picado (punched paper). These paper creations can be quite complex and are genuine works of art.
