Celebrating Day Of The Dead
Celebrating Day Of The Dead or Día De Los Muertos is a newer family tradition for my Mexican American family. Last year my kids and I embraced this tradition of our heritage. I am writing this blog to help you if you are wanting to start celebrating with your family or just want to learn more about Día De Los Muertos.
Origins
Día De Los Muertos is celebrated on November 1-November 2. This holiday honors your ancestors by celebrating their lives and welcoming home their spirits for one night. It it based on an Aztec tradition of celebrating their dead ancestors. When the Spanish invaded in the 1500s and brought their Catholic religion to Mexico, they also brought All Souls Day. So Día De Los Muertos combines these two traditions.
Alter and Decor
The first thing my family and I set up is the ofrenda, the alter, in our home. We place pictures of our loved ones that have passed away. Next we include some type of orange flowers usually marigolds. These flowers are called the flowers of the dead (flor de muerto). The flowers can be real, fake or even paper flowers. The bright color of the flowers is to attract the souls of your deceased loved ones. Next, you can add sugar skulls (calaveras). These represent to sweetness of life. Then after that we add a papel picado banner (perforation or cut paper banner). You can make your own or buy a premade one. We add a sweet bread of some sort or pan de muerto so the hungry souls have something to eat. Don’t forget a glass of water or another favorite beverage. Lastly, we add a cross and a candle with the Virgin Mary.
Getting Kids Involved
The kids like to help find photographs around the house to include in the alter. I will also add LED tealights on the ofrenda and the kids enjoy turning these on each evening leading up to the Day Of The Dead. My kids also like coloring pictures of sugar skulls to add to the alter and thinking of other special momentos to include on the ofrenda that belonged to our loved ones. We make or buy pan de muerto or make sugar cookies decorated like the calaveras to place on the alter. Your family can help make some paper flower or the papel picado. Lastly, we tell stories and look at pictures of our loved ones.
Creating New Traditions
Each year my children and I are trying to learn more about Día De Los Muertos and celebrating our new tradition together. We read books together and share special stories of our loved ones. Each year we are buying another decor item for our ofrenda too. Last year we found a ceramic sugar skull and this year a cloth banner for the front door decorated with a calavera. I look forward to celebrating with a my family each year and making new memories and traditions. Another thing to note is that celebrating this with our children has lead to some positive and helpful discussion of death, especially since we have experienced the death of loved ones in the past two years. I think this topic is less scary for our children, and they are comfortable asking questions around the topic of death.
Links
Here are a few links of some items to start your ofenda. Here is a paper flower kit and a papel picado kit. Here are some kid friendly books: a board book, activity book, picture book or coloring book. Next is some decor: ceramic candle holder or wall sign.
I hope this post was helpful and that you learned something new. Or maybe you are inspired to celebrated Day Of The Day with your family and create new traditions. I hope you have a lovely week!
