Dia de Los Muertos

Teaching our kids about Mexican traditions has always been a priority. I love showing them traditions that I grew up with. It takes me back to my childhood as I look back at fond memories of time spent with my family making a piñata, or joining my school’s competition on Day of the Dead creating beautiful altars when I was in culinary school. 

Although I was not raised Catholic and did not celebrate the Day of the Dead when I was young, I want my kids to learn this beautiful tradition of honoring our loved ones who have passed.  This year, I found an Altar making workshop at our Public Library (organized by the Cultural Coalition Phoenix) and thought this would be a great activity for the family to create our first Altar. My daughter is obsessed with the movie “Book of Life”, which I happen to stumble upon at the library and thought this would be a great way for the kids to learn about Dia de los Muertos. Since then, we have had to renew it more times, than I can remember! At this point, I should probably buy the movie..

This beautiful animated comedy captured my girl’s heart and it was a great way for me to introduce her to our Day of the Dead or Dia de Los Muertos. Since watching the movie, my daughter decided she wanted to be "The Queen" for Halloween.

Dia de los Muertos is celebrated on November 1^st. We celebrate our loved ones by building an altar or shrine with a picture of our departed and we honor them by decorating it with their favorite things or thing you remember them.

An altar usually has a table where you place the favorite food of your beloved departed. The idea is that the dead are allowed to return to Earth once a year and the altar serves as a visual signal to guide the souls of the dead to their loved ones’ home. The scents of incense and marigold flowers, the colorful “papel picado” and candles lead them to their shrine. The souls get to feast on their favorite food, drinks and of course sweets!

The workshop at the Library was a great building block to start our altar. We started with a carton box and covered it with colored paper.

They lent us a template to do the top and sides of the altar and we took it from there.

A friend of mine had gifted me two little boxes with “Calaveras” (skeletons) which are normally part of an altar, so when we got home, we added them to the altar. We bought skull stickers to decorate it and over the course of a few weeks, we kept adding things to it.

We bought pots of Marigolds and placed them next to the altar. We decided to add pictures of the  kids’ great-grandparents and on November 1^st we will add candy to symbolize their favorite foods.

My little girl loves arts and crafts so this project was definitely right up her alley and I am sure it  will become a family tradition to honor our loved ones every year.

If you or your little ones would like to learn more about this beautiful tradition that is also celebrated throughout Latin America, the library has great resources. We have borrowed books and DVDs that have helped me reinforce the traditions and answer questions my daughter may have about this celebration. We also found a beautiful book written in English and Spanish called "Dia de los Muertos" by Roseanne Greenfield Thong that is also beautifully illustrated 

Happy Dia de los Muertos!