Dia De Los Muertos offers the community an opportunity to celebrate life
Photo Courtesy of Bianca Reyes
A small calavera (skull) sits as an offering for Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead, where people pay their respects to the dead by placing their favorite foods out and lighting their path to the afterlife with candles.
October 31, 2016
This weekend, the C-U community commemorated deceased loved ones at the Spurlock Art Museum.
Every year the Hispanic celebration of Dia de los Muertos, otherwise known as Day of the Dead, takes place on November 1.
According to the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum of Chicago’s book, Dia de los Muertos, on this holiday altars are created in homes to celebrate and remember deceased family or loved ones. Altars are decorated with photographs, food, sugar skulls and cempasúchil (paper marigolds). All these offerings are done to make the loved one feel at home again.
On Friday, La Casa Cultural Latina held an event in collaboration with the University YMCA in Latzer Hall.
Approximately 20 different Registered Student Organizations were invited to make an altar representing their organization. The victims of Orlando, STEM Women of Color and famous Mexican artists who have passed were all themes submitted for their altars.
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Activity tables were also set up for face painting, sugar skull decorating and papel picado (decorative tissue paper craft) for all in attendance.
“Although (campuses) are literally in the communities, they’re still their own little bubble,” said Araceli Diaz, assistant director for La Casa. “I feel like this is one of the biggest, or best ways, to bridge that gap and let people know that they’re more than welcome to come onto campus and that students are encouraged to go off-campus as well.”
This past Saturday, the Spurlock Museum also held an event to celebrate Dia de los Muertos during their Zahn Learning Center Open Hours.
Visitors had the opportunity to decorate paper mâché skulls and read through educational texts explaining common altar elements. Several student volunteers were around to help guide crafting and explain the history behind the crafts.
Brook Taylor, education program coordinator at Spurlock, said organizing activity-based public programs is one of the main parts of her job.
“This may be my favorite ZLC program of the year. I am always excited to help visitors experience this holiday and its iconic art forms. This is at least the sixth year I’ve offered the program,” Taylor said.
Megan Koeller, senior in LAS and employee at Spurlock, said the museum does a lot of research when deciding what crafts best fit Spurlock’s mission of educating the community about different cultures around the world.
“I think a lot of U of I students don’t even know that the Spurlock Museum exists or even really what it is. So I think just getting the word out there that we are here and it’s a fun place to hang out and learn,” Koeller said. “I think more recently professors have been having little assignments in the museum to get students to realize that it is a good resource for them to learn about different cultures.”
