#DIA DE LOS MUERTOS ALTAR PROJECT HOW TO#

I think it’s beautiful that both cultures portray death as another part of life, not something entirely separate. Like Día de los Muertos, Obon Odori is held to honor the dead as they return from the spirit realm for a night of festivities. Without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today, nor would I have been gifted with so many great opportunities in life, like the change to attend university.Īfter learning more about Día de los Muertos at the workshop, I was reminded of Obon Odori, a Japanese festival for the dead held in late summer.

The workshop gave me a moment to thank my grandfathers and other late ancestors for their hard work and sacrifices. In our busy, chaotic everyday lives, it can be difficult to find a moment to relax and think about what we have. The workshop offered us a perfect moment for reflection. I also included a paper crane in my altar, both as a nod to my ethnic background and a reference to the element of air.

For my altar, I tried (and failed) to create simplistic trees from green pipe cleaners to represent earth. Some people focused on creating designs with tissue paper, while others took advantage of the buttons and paper cut-outs to decorate any empty spaces in their altars. I enjoyed seeing how everyone customized their altars using the given materials. Thanks to our facilitator from Self-Help Graphics, I quickly learned that we could have artistic freedom when decorating the shoebox, as long as we included certain decorative features, like a reference to all four elements (earth, wind, fire and air). At the beginning of the workshop, I didn’t know if there was an objectively “correct” way to make an altar. Alongside my friends, I made an altar from a recycled shoebox for my maternal and paternal grandfathers. So attending the Shoebox Altar Workshop was a great cultural experience for me. While I had heard of Día de los Muertos, I had never participated in any of the practices associated with it. From Kaylee Kayle (left) with other workshop attendees

#DIA DE LOS MUERTOS ALTAR PROJECT HOW TO#

In collaboration with Self Help Graphics, and sponsored by LMU’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, LMU’s Chicano Latino Student Services, the Latino Faculty Association, and the Latinx Staff Association, more than 25 in-person and virtual attendees had the opportunity to learn about the history of the holiday and how to make their own “shoebox altar.” We asked our student assistants Kaylee, Lia, and Vero to share with us their experience attending the workshop. Hannon Library hosted a workshop to celebrate Día de los Muertos.

Dia de los muertos altar project