Throughout the past weeks, numerous New Prairie teachers and students celebrated Dia De Los Muertos in a couple different ways.
Dia de los muertos is a holiday celebrated by the Spanish-speaking cultures. It is celebrated on November 2nd.
“Day of the Dead it is a very special celebration for Spanish-speaking cultures that is a time to remember and honor their deceased loved ones,” said Spanish teacher Angela Ruiz.
Ruiz celebrated with her classes in a traditional way.
“In our class we celebrated by making Papel Picado, which is cut paper, to decorate the classroom,” she explained.
“We also talked about other elements of Day of the Dead,” she added.
Ruiz also celebrated at home with her family in a similar way.
“At home, my family made Papel Picado also, and hung it on our fireplace. We also decorated sugar skull cookies,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz then commented on her favorite parts of the Day of The Dead.
“My favorite part of Day of The Dead is remembering my loved ones that have passed and celebrating their life,” she said.
3D art classes at New Prairie also celebrated Day of The Dead by making ofrendas.
Art teacher David McGhee explained how the ofrendas play a part in Dia De Los Muertos.
“The ofrendas are a piece of installation art that is put up to celebrate people and loved ones who have passed away,” McGhee explained.
McGhee commented on the different parts of an ofrenda.
“These altars contain many different parts and materials. A traditional ofrenda will contain an image of the person, objects to remember that person by, flowers, papel picado, food and water, sugar skulls, and candles,” he stated.
McGhee also explained details on the ofrendas made by students at New Prairie.
“Some of the ofrendas the NPHS students created were more traditional and about a person that is important to them, others chose to create a more unique ofrenda about a pet, celebrity, or even a TV show.”
McGhee then told about how the ofrendas were made.
“These ofendas were made by assembling many different pieces together to tell about the person each student chose. We used many different art techniques such as found objects, assemblage, and clay to create the items the students used in their pieces. They also had to decide what traditional items they were going to include,” he said.
He talked about what he saw the students constructed the ofrendas with during the project.
“I gave the classes two weeks to construct their ofrendas in the classroom. During this time students were creating many different pieces from paper flowers and candles, to multi level stands for their ofrendas.”
McGhee shared his thoughts on the importance of celebrating Day of the Dead this way.
“I thought it was important to celebrate Dia De Los Muertos this way because it makes the celebration and creation of art more personal to each student,” he voiced.
McGhee explained what the ofrendas taught the students who made them.
“This lesson teaches them about art in other cultures and how they can use that experience to create something unique to them. They not only get to create artwork but also tell people about someone or something who was important to them,” said McGhee.
Sophomore Trenton Walls made an ofrenda himself and gave his thoughts on what ofrendas are and his favorite part of the project.
“Ofrendas give honor to the person or animal that passed away,” he explained, “My favorite part of the project was making the traditional objects like paper candles and a skull,” he stated.
Walls elaborated on why the day of the dead is a good way to honor your deceased loved ones.
“Day of The Dead is a good way to remember deceased ones because you can make an altar like thing for them and put objects that resemble them as if it’s a sport or even their favorite meal,” he voiced.
Walls incorporated traditional elements into his project.
“I incorporated traditional elements into my ofrenda by including a cardboard circle I painted with Spider-Man’s symbol on it and a candle that I made to honor Spider-Man,” Walls said.