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| News - Spring Hill | |||
| Written by Chase Jordan | |||
| Wednesday, 04 November 2009 08:00 | |||
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Elaine Vallejos’ classroom at Spring Hill High School was decorated with more than 100 skeletons on Monday. The bones were not there for a Halloween celebration, but instead they were there in observance of the Day of the Dead. El Día de los Muertos is a Mexican Memorial Day observed Oct. 31 and culminating on Nov. 2, which is the official date of the Day of the Dead. The celebration takes place around Halloween, but it is not related and is not intended to be scary.  “Children don’t dress up in costumes, and skeletons are more like clowns,” Vallejos said. “El Día de los Muertos is a time to remember that death will come to everyone.” The Spanish teacher said it’s a healthy way of looking at death, rather than the grim ideas of dying. An altar or “Ofrenda” is built in the shape of a pyramid and is decorated with traditional items that belonged to the person who died. “The belief is that those who have died visit on the evening of Nov. 1,” Vallejos said about the celebration. “The family prays and burns candles to ‘light the way’ for the spirit. It is said tears will only make the spirit’s path slippery.” Vallejos said families in Mexico come together for a meal, and in some towns families decorate the grave site of a loved one. At SHHS, she made sugar cookies covered with icing and decorated with the face of a skull. The forehead is decorated with the recipient’s name. “This is like what children in Mexico do ... they will buy skull candies in the market and have their friends’ name put on the foreheads,” she said. “Then they go around to their friends’ homes delivering the cookies and other gifts, rather like Valentine’s Day traditions here.” Students in her Spanish classes made skull candy molds and made sugar “calavera” candies. Other students made special breads from “pan de muerto” or ‘dead bread’ recipes. Along with making treats, students honored family, friends and celebrities like Michael Jackson, Patrick Swayze and Bob Marley with decorations. Sophomore Camron Jackson said it was strange, until he studied the celebration. “It was kind of weird, but there are people that celebrate death around the world,” Jackson said. “It seems unusual here, but it’s common in Mexico.” Jennifer Chaney, sophomore, said it was fun to see people’s creativity during the celebration. Joshua Wilson brought in a picture of his grandfather Earl Wilson to join Vallejos’ family members in a mural. “It was a pretty cool celebration,” Wilson said. Vallejos has been celebrating Day of the Dead since 1991. She will retire in May and will travel to Oaxaca, Mexico to participate in the celebration in 2010 with her friend Gloria Norris. “I learned about it at a conference, and I never had the opportunity to see the real thing,” Vallejos said. “In certain places it’s bigger than Christmas.” Vallejos said she enjoys that students have the opportunity to learn about it. “Former students have told me that is was their favorite cultural thing to study in my class,” she said. “It is such a different way to look at death, and as the Day of the Dead saying goes “No adiós sino hasta luego,” (not good-bye but rather see you later).
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