Honoring the dead
The altar at the TLC building honoring students’ loved ones that have passed away. Photo by: Emmett Roman.
By Emmett Roman
Staff Reporter
Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a Mexican/Latino Holiday that honors loved ones who have passed away. Traditionally, the holiday is celebrated November 1 and November 2, but sometimes the holiday can be celebrated October 31 or November 6.
To celebrate the occasion, The Hispanic Heritage Awareness Committee at LCC invited students to the TLC building on campus on October 29 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. At the event, students created alters to honor loved ones and painted skulls to allow students to express themselves while honoring the tradition of Día de los Muertos. The event had over 86 attendees.
Día de los Muertos has an interesting origin. According to The University of Kansas, Día de los Muertos has been celebrated since the Aztec Empire before Catholicism created the modern holiday we know now. The original celebration honored the Lady of The Dead, Mictēcacihuātl, Queen of Mictlān (the underworld). The Aztecs believed the queen looked after the bones of past lives and would ascend to make sure the bones were being taken care of. When she would arrive, to thank her for her protection, the Aztecs would hold celebrations for death with dancing and food.
However, when Spanish conquistadors invaded America, they brought Catholicism and forced many of the Indigenous people to convert. After witnessing the Aztec celebrations of death, the Spaniards fused Aztec tradition with the Catholic holidays of "All Saints Day" and "All Souls Day.” During these festivals in Spain, family members would decorate graves, bring food to gravesites and light candles to guide spirits of the dead to return to their families.
In modern celebrations, Mictēcacihuātl has been replaced by a new Lady of Death, La Catrina. She is a skeleton woman wearing a hat adorned with feathers.
Now, in some of the modern-day celebration of holidays is people tend to have many different ways to celebrate. Such as wearing skull masks and face paint, spending time with their family at gravestones of their loved ones, creating alters to honor the dead and eating community dishes specifically prepared for the holiday.
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