On Oct. 30, DVHS Spanish 4 students unveiled ornate altars in the library for their annual project about Dia de los Muertos. These altars celebrate the life of an influential person
Dia de los Muertos, also known as Day of the Dead, is a recurring holiday that happens on Nov. 1-2, a tradition that originated in Central Mexico. This holiday has its origins in Aztec culture before fusing with Catholic values when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in America.
Originally, Dia de los Muertos comes from the belief of celebrating the death of loved ones rather than mourning. It is also believed that the spirits of the deceased return to visit the world of the living to meet with their families. Ashley Hoover, a Spanish four honors teacher, emphasizes this sentiment as well.
“Dia de los Muertos is not about worshiping the dead but instead celebrating the lives of our loved ones and showing gratitude for them as well,” Hoover expressed.
In Latino regions, people create altars and decorate burial sites in which their deceased family members lie. Nov. 1 is often known as “Dia de los Inocentes” which is to honor children that have passed away. Nov. 2 is known as “Dia de los Difuntos” which specifically honors deceased adults and children through ofrendas, traditional offerings that are created by family members of the deceased.
These altars often contain items such as pan de muerto, a type of sweet bread, marigolds, sugar skulls, papel picado, brightly colored tissue paper in various patterns and many other items that the deceased person liked.
This annual tradition of Dia de los Muertos displays in the library all incorporate personalized items such as food or items that correlate to the character that each student brought to decorate their altar.
‘Students have the opportunity to be creative and personalize the elements to honor the person that the students choose. That is one of the big takeaways from this project,” Hoover noted.
At DVHS, students are tasked with creating an altar that honors a deceased celebrity such as Michael Jackson or Bob Ross or fictional characters such as Iron Man.
“Students chose their person as a group because of the person being influential in their time period and having a positive impact on the community during their lifespan,” Hoover recalled.
However, Hoover states that the project does more than just the honoring, it helps teach students about other aspects of other cultures.
“There is a definite cultural impact for our school, I think it exposes students outside of just learning the language. [Dia de Los Muertos] gets [the students] to understand cultures and traditions from other countries that they might not discover otherwise,” Hoover stated.
This continued trend of appreciation for Latino culture is displayed every year in the library for DVHS students and families.
“It’s an opportunity for [the students] to learn about not only a person, but a culture and how people honor their loved ones,” Hoover concluded, “it’s also an opportunity for them to work together and collaborate, to develop, to create something fun and exciting.”
