I’ve known about Dia de los Muertos for most of my life. When I was little kid, my family and I attended a parade that commemorated the holiday in Del Rio (Texas), which is about thirty miles southwest of where I live in Brackettville. I marveled as people who were dressed in black but had their faces painted white to mimic skeletons danced down the road. I wasn’t scared, but I wasn’t quite sure about what I was watching.
For the past few years, I’ve always told myself that I wanted to observe Dia de los Muertos, but November 1 and 2 would come around, seemingly too soon, and because I hadn’t prepared anything, I would let it would pass without doing anything, and I would promise myself that I’d do something the next year.
This year, the Whitehead Museum invited businesses and organizations to decorate an altar at their museum. Because their director Michael Diaz is always supportive of what we do, it was almost impossible for us to not think of participating.
For the past few weeks, I’ve tried to learn as much as I can about Dia de los Muertos. First and foremost, it is not Mexican Halloween, which I had never really considered before, but I can understand how and why it might seem like that. This is because Halloween takes place on October 31, while Dia de los Muertos takes place on November 1 and 2. While Halloween is all about ghosts and goblins, Dia de los Muertos is about family and remembering.
While many who observe the holiday create and decorate altars where photographs of loved ones, marigolds, and candles help honor those who have passed, just remembering the names of your loved ones is one way to keep them alive. In preparation for our altar decoration at the Whitehead Museum, we put out a call for photos. And we received a wide range of photos. Some of them were professionally taken while others were old and tattered, but what they all have in common is that they contain the face of a dearly departed loved one. Some of them passed away so young, while others loved to nearly a century. We also realized that not everyone would have photos of their loved ones, so we also asked everyone to send in their loved ones’ names.
Soon I will be adding my mom, grandma, grandpa, my aunt and two uncles to our altar. While I do think about them all the time, this will be the first time that I will be honoring them collectively. And remembering my loved ones won’t stop when Dia de los Muertos ends.
