Making An Altar

This past weekend, October 26 and October 27, Spirit of Christ Catholic Community had the exhibition for Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) altars. Instead of doing an altar for my mother, father and brother which I have done in the past, I decided to prepare one for my son. His 3rd year anniversary of his death will be on October 29, 1920. It is a time that in some respects seems he has been gone longer than three years and at other times it seems as if he left us a few months ago.

I began gathering up mementos that I would place on the altar. A gold tablecloth, a small soccer ball, a stick figure of a soccer player with number eleven on its back because he played and coached soccer, two glasses filled with cranberry juice in lieu of wine, two of his pottery creations, a picture of a llama to represent Peru and maracas to represent Mexico, a bag of sunflower seeds because he ate them at games, chile peppers and tomatoes to represent the killer green chile he would make, a King Arthur book he loved to read as a child, and a picture of him skiing. I placed playing cards and  gambling card because he loved to go to Blackhawk, flip-flops to represent the ones he wore year round, orange chrysanthemum in one of his pots, a cell phone, a baby picture, Nessa, short for Vanessa, his grandfather's dog  that he took when his grandfather died, and three decorative candles. There were other items I would have liked to have on the altar but could not find them. One was a picture of his red Porsche and the other was a copy of  the Arvada Report where his company was featured.

After the 10:30 mass there were quite a few persons looking at the display of altars, children making and coloring skulls and pictures, watching the movie Coco, drinking apple cider and eating Day of the Dead bread shaped like a skull. After the 12:30 p.m. mass a few people came in to see the altars. I was not around after the other masses so I do not know how many persons wandered into the room to see the celebration of altars.

This Mexican custom may seem odd to some but yet it has an interesting story behind the tradition.
It is a day to honor those that are gone from this earth and remembering them by placing some of their favorite things on the altar. The Marigold is the traditional flower used but yellow, orange, and brown mums also work.

What I am noticing is that more and more places are decorating Day of the Dead altars.  Museum of Nature and Science, Mexican Cultural Center, Denver Botanic Gardens, and Longmont Museum and Cultural Center are a few where the tradition is celebrated. I know a few families who make their own private altars in their homes. I, for one, love the tradition of making altars for those that are no longer with us!

"Our dead are never dead to us,

until we have forgotten them."

George Eliot