By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Nov. 2 is its official date, although it is observed Oct. 31-Nov. 2, according to Wednesday evening's The Museum at Southwestern Michigan College presentation by students of Spanish and English as a Second Language (ESL) and Spanish Club.
Today's celebrations coincide with ancient corn festivals, which shared food from plentiful harvests with the deceased.
This holiday is a time when family members who have died are remembered.
In Mexico this festival is considered the most important holiday of the year.
Although this celebration is associated with the dead, it is not morbid or depressing, but a time to embrace life, happiness, color, food, family and fun, with decorated cemeteries transforming into picnic areas teeming with dancing and music.
Main symbols of Day of the Dead are skulls and skeletons, with bony figures baked into treats and, instead of, say, Easter eggs, children munching “sugar skull” confections.
Scenes of skeletons hugging, marching, dancing and laughing are displayed in windows along streets.
The holiday welcomes visiting souls of the dead.
Souls return each year to enjoy the pleasures they once had in their lives.
No spirits are seen, but their presence is felt.
SMC's Day of the Dead also featured poetry reading in English and Spanish. Mari Blackmond and Courtney Gause presented the traditional poem “Calaveras.”
Judy Ramos read “Woman with a Somber Gaze” by Julie Sopetran, while Jodee Duis and Robert Paulson shared original poetry.
They have been working on the project since August, according to teacher Natalie Anagnos of Elkhart, Ind.
Oct. 28 is designated for those killed in accidents, suicides, homicides and other violent ends.
Oct. 29 is reserved for the unbaptized, Oct. 30 for lonely souls, Oct. 31 is for baptized children, Nov. 1 is for adults, with all of the spirits leaving Nov. 2.
Another aspect of Dia de los Muertos is building an “ofrenda,” or offering.
Aztecs began celebrating death more than 3,000 years ago in the month of Miccailhuitontli, which fell roughly at the end of July and the beginning of August.
They believed life is a dream from which you awake when you die. Natives regarded death as a continuation of life. “They also believed that the dead could return to the land of the living as monarch butterflies and hummingbirds,” McFadden said.
Skulls were collected all year long for use in holiday rituals.
When Spanish conquistadors came to the Americas, they were appalled at the Aztecs' mocking of death and attempted to impose their Christian beliefs. They even tried to eradicate the observance.
Day of the Dead was moved to coincide with Catholic All Saints Day Nov. 1 and All-Souls Day Nov. 2, but “the Spanish were unable to suppress the holiday,” McFadden said. “Ofrendas are not for worshiping, but serve as a remembrance to the dearly departed and as a place for their spirits to return. In appearance, crammed with pictures of loved ones and trinkets that they enjoyed in life, as well as aromatic marigolds, candles and copal incense, they need to be examined closely because their details are like scouring the scenes in “I Spy” picture books.
The type of marigold, cempasuchil, is the traditional flower of the holiday for decorating ofrendas and graves. Flowers symbolize the brevity of life Their fragrances draw home the souls, while the incense purifies the air. A candle is lit for each person being remembered on the ofrenda.
Pan de muerto literally means “bread of the dead.” The sweet bread, usually decorated with skulls and crossbones, then sprinkled with sugar.
People don skull masks and dress as skeletons to honor the dead, becoming bodies to which visiting spirits can come back.
Joe Coti said urban areas seem to have lost a lot of the original significance. “The holiday is more cultural heritage than the true meaning for people who build ofrenda who believe that the souls return every year. It's bittersweet because they're remembering people they loved who are gone, yet their physical things are on the ofrenda. There's also the joy that they're right there with them.”
It's similar in Mexico to the way Christmas has been commercialized in the United States, with merchants using skeletons to promote sales.
Silvia Hernandez, Dulce Cortes, Deyanira Dominguez, Earnest Riggs III, Joe Coti, Toni Magyar, Dana and McKenna Williamson, Jessica McFadden, Racheal and Logan Burnau, Stephanie Timm and Natalie Anagnos made SMC's ofrenda in the museum rotunda.
Ofrendas are usually erected in houses on tables or suspended from the ceiling. They are built like staircases. Agagnos' grandmother topped SMC's. Some have arches over them.
They took some liberties, adding apples and mums for Michigan, where pictures showed sugar cane grown in other regions. Using what they have, the cross is made from fire ash.