Mount Si Spanish class marks Day of the Dead
November 4, 2009
By Laura Geggel
With a little help from her students, Mount Si High School Spanish teacher Linda Wickswat transformed her classroom into a celebration of El Dia de los Muertos – the Day of the Dead.
Juniors Kaylin Dahms (left) and Madison Bardsley hold up the Dia de los Muertos masks they decorated in Spanish class at Mount Si High School. Photo by Laura Geggel
Colored paper skeletons hung on the walls and a shrine — known as an ofrenda — stood in the corner displaying student reports of the famous deceased.
Her class of third-year students added to the décor, decorating paper skeleton masks with markers and ribbons. They laughed and chatted with one another as they snacked on Mexican and Central American food, including pan de muerto — bread of the dead — and other sweets.
Dia de los Muertos may happen around the same time as Halloween, but senior Kasea Harbachuk said the two couldn’t be more different.
“It’s pretty much the opposite of what we consider Halloween,” Harbachuk said. “There’s nothing grotesque about it. It’s about honoring people.”
Unlike Halloween, Dia de los Muertos lasts for two days, Nov. 1 and 2.
Dia de los Muertos skeletons decorate the classroom of Spanish teacher Linda Wickswat. Photo by Laura Geggel
The first day celebrates children and infants who have died. The second day is dedicated to all others who have died and honors them in style with colorful festivities and plenty of food. Marigold flowers, or cempasúchil, of yellow and orange can be found everywhere, as can sugar skull cookies, called calaveras.
“It’s a big holiday in Mexico,” junior Nate Chase recalled learning in class. “They celebrate their ancestors who have died.”
As different as the day was from Halloween, the two do share an element of dressing up. Would he wear the mask he was decorating as a Halloween costume?
“Maybe, it could be an option,” Chase said.
Junior Kaylin Dahms was of a different mind.
Junior Caleb Huerta said he would likely put the mask in his room. He decided to take Spanish, in part, because his grandparents speak it constantly and his father sometimes throws it into conversation. Although his immediate family does not celebrate Dia de los Muertos, Huerta enjoyed getting a dose of it at school while he colored in his mask.
The Mexican and Central American holiday is colorful with pink, purple and green festooned over grinning white skeletons. Many Americans typically distance themselves from death and the dead, and Mount Si’s Spanish-language students were glad to learn about another cultural perspective.
“I think it’s a cool way to look at death other than how Americans look at it,” junior Madison Bardsley said.
Wickswat said learning the culture of a country is just as important as learning a language and encouraged her students to visit the annual Dia de los Muertos festival at Seattle Center.
Laura Geggel: 392-6434 ext. 221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.
Dia de los Muertos
- The Day of the Dead has been traced back to an ancient Aztec holiday for remembering and honoring the deceased.
- The day happens at the same time as the Roman Catholic All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day of Nov. 1 and 2.
Source: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University.
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Que lindas calaveras y esqueletos! I love to know where you found the patterns for the skeletons. I would like my kindergartners to make them!
The masks look great. I also make these for Day of the Dead. The skeletons are fabulous, would love to get the patterns.