“Dia de los Muertos,” also known as the “Day of the Dead” is  a traditional Mexican holiday that celebrates and honors those who have passed away. It typically takes place on November 1st and 2nd, coinciding with the Catholic All Saints Day and all Souls Day. During this vibrant and colorful celebration, all the families and communities come together to do traditions  so that we show love and remembrance to those loved ones that passed away. 

“Dia de los Muertos,” is not a somber occasion but rather a joyful and festive one. It involves music, dance, parades, and the use of vibrant colors. Decorative sugar skulls and skeletons to symbolize the cycle of life and death. This celebration is a unique blend of indigenous Aztec traditions and catholicism, reflecting Mexico’s rich cultural history. Most people celebrate this day by visiting the gravesite and pulling weeds, cleaning any debris and decorating the graves of loved ones. People often also wear skull masks and eat sugar candy molded into the shape of skulls. In many towns and cities people do funky makeup, costumes,hold parades and parties, sing, dance, and make offerings to lost loved ones. 

As part of my AP Spanish project, we had to create our own Altar in groups of five. My group and I first started off by wrapping our biggest box in black that will go at the very bottom. We then wrapped the second biggest box in pink, lastly the smallest box in red. That all symbolizes the color of the dead. Then we stacked those 3 boxes on top of eachother and started decorating using fake flowers, skeletons, skulls, photo frames, butterflies, lights, candies, papel picado, and a long Mexican scarf. We organized all the things as neatly and beautifully as possible. We put flowers on each corner. On the sides of the three Altar we put a plastic mask of a skull, real flowers, virgencita candle, and the day of the dead frame. The Mexican scaf went across, laying on the second to biggest box. Lastly we printed out the pictures of the people we were going to put into the photo frames. These stars were Selena, Jenny Renny Rivera, Vicente Fernandez, and other famous people that passed away. 

My overall opinion on this hispanic heritage month project was enjoyable and new experiences because I have never done a group project this fun and exciting and never this big. The most I ever did was a poster or any drawing but nothing to do with an Altar. I also got to learn a lot more about my culture and meaning behind them. Therefore, from this project not only did I learn to be more social but I also comprehend the deep importance of, “Dia de los Muertos.”