Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a Mexican holiday celebrated on Nov. 1 and 2 in which family members and friends gather to celebrate the lives of the deceased. STLCC-Meramec honored this celebration in Business Administration room 105 on Nov. 2.
Alex Kendall
-Senior Staff Photographer-
Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a Mexican holiday celebrated on Nov. 1 and 2 in which family members and friends gather to celebrate the lives of the deceased. STLCC-Meramec honored this celebration in Business Administration room 105 on Nov. 2.
The Mexican holiday celebration consists of traditions connected and include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts.
“In Mexico we like to make a party of it,” Anabel Gonzalez, a speaker at the Day of the Dead and a Meramec student, said.
Gonzalez came to America at the age of 2 from Guanajuato, Mexico. Gonzalez spoke at the event teaching students and faculty about the history and the meaning of the celebration.
Another student at Meramec, Paola Beltran, talked about her celebration of Dia de los Muertos in Colombia.
“[It] is so different in the same celebration,” Beltran said. “We would go to church and light a candle for the dead. It’s interesting to see how much effort they put in for celebrating for the dead and the living.”
Gonzalez said this holiday is a way to remember the deceased and their loved ones.
“Of course you are going to remember them in a sad way, because they are no longer there,” Gonzalez said. “Being happy and [the deceased] know you are, just remembering the happy things is a why we make a party out of it.”
