The History of Dia de Muertos, by Isis Ortega

Please enjoy this article written by a student in DMHS's "Introduction to Journalism" class!

The Day of The Dead was first celebrated in the 16 century by the Aztecs. They believed that when they put up their ofrendas (altars) that they were giving food to the spirits for their long journey to the land of the dead. The Aztecs had 2 days to celebrate: the first day was for the kids and the second day was for the adults. On these days they were not grieving; they were celebrating the lives of dead family members and what they applied in that time and the person that they were in life. 

Now in Mexico, it is similar to the way that the Aztecs celebrated the Day of The Dead but now when they set up their ofrendas they have four elements; fire, water, air, and earth. But people still celebrate the two days like the Aztecs did. Another big part of Day of the Dead is the food. You can’t have the Day of The Dead without food. There usually is Mole, Tamales, Pozole, and Sopa, also, when you make all this food you usually share it with family, neighbors, and strangers. Most of the time when you make the food you have a recipe from your grandma and most of the time you have to decorate sugar skulls. You decorate them with frosting and you can decorate them the way you want to. That is a tradition that everyone likes and it is really fun to do it with your whole family. 

If you want to celebrate Dia De Los Muertos then here’s what you need to do first: you need to set up your ofrenda and what should be on the ofrenda is the four elements; fire, water, earth, and air. Then you will need to put up photos of the family member that passed, food that those family members loved to eat, and something that family members loved in life or some object that family members liked to use. also you put skulls on there to show color. The second thing you do is go to their burial site and put marigolds to lead the spirits home. The third thing is to put up papel picado and that is confetti that looks like shapes designed the way you like and they are lots of different colors. Most people say if you are into Mexican traditions then you cant be lacking color or skulls. 

Also, this day is about celebrating your loved one’s life and it is not about crying or grieving. On this day there will be music and dancing. More traditions are that the girls wear colorful dresses, have flowers in their hair, and have their faces painted like skulls. The boys wear suits and sombreros, they also have their faces painted like skulls. To add to all that, families go off to the graveyard, and they clean tombstones and sing songs and talk to their ancestors and people even introduce their kids to their grandparents if they never met them while they were alive. They also bring lots of food to eat and they even have fireworks to celebrate and they party till the sun rises. If you have not already, you should watch the movie, Coco. It can tell you as much about Dia De Los Muertos (Day of The Dead) as I did.