The sound of “Canta y No Llores” and the smell of Mexican “pan de muerto” filled the Formal Lounge for an hour and a half on Nov. 1.
The Sigma Delta Pi Spanish Honorary, in conjunction with the Spanish department, hosted a Día de Los Muertos celebration as part of a fundraiser for a local charity.
Known as “Day of the Dead” in English, it was funded by the Student Activities Office and the Spanish department, as well as a fundraiser for Court Appointed Special Advocates — a charity that seeks legal representation for children in foster care.
Junior Kalli Dalrymple, Spanish major and vice president of Sigma Delta Pi, described the event as part of the honorary’s goal to have more campus-wide events. The Día de Los Muertos event is the group’s second of the semester, following “Salsa con Salsa,” an event in September with salsa — in both the food and the dance form.
Sigma Delta Pi chose to do an event based upon Día de Los Muertos because of its iconic Mexican heritage, and to expose students to the Day of the Dead as more than just a “fancy decorated skull,” Dalrymple said.
Amanda Stechschulte, lecturer in Spanish, made the sugar skulls by hand.
“They started with the Aztecs and their skulls, which were from human sacrifices and displayed to denote the connection between the living and the dead,” Stechschulte said.
In its own way, every element of Día de Los Muertos is a fusion of several different cultures, including the Spanish All Saints Day and All Souls Day, the technique of making sugar skulls from the Arabs, and Aztec tradition, Stechschulte said.
Sugar skulls, water, bread, and pictures of the dead family members adorn altars in homes throughout Día de Los Muertos. On Día de Los Muertos, families visit the graveyard. They clean the graves and put marigolds on them as they celebrate and remember their community.
“It’s a celebration that honors the dead,” she said.
Everything at the celebration is oriented toward that, she continued. The ofrenda, or altar, at the Day of the Dead event was dedicated to Frida Kahlo, a famous Mexican painter, and included replicas of her artwork.
One of the activities at the event was creating “papel picado,” which is tissue paper that is cut into designs with skulls and flowers.
“It’s included with any celebration,” Stechschulte said, in addition to reading “calaveras,” or skulls. “People playfully publish poems that talk about the death of someone who is living and we’ll have one to COVID-19.”
Although most of the students who attended the Day of the Dead celebration are taking Spanish courses, a few went with no knowledge of the language or the holiday.
Freshman and French student Maggie Baldwin said she had no previous exposure to Día de Los Muertos, aside from “Coco,” a Disney movie, and eating tacos at Mexican restaurants.
“The event was very eye opening to the culture of Mexico because sometimes people just focus on tacos and ignore the traditions and heritage that they have,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin said she enjoyed making “papel picado,” but that the sugar skulls were harder to decorate.
“I added eyebrows and that wasn’t right, and then I filled in the eye sockets, and that was really creepy,” she said with a laugh.
In spite of the post-Halloween fright, Baldwin observed that the event was good for anyone to experience different traditions in a beautiful way.
