The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. The celebration occurs on November 1st and 2nd. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts.
Our school had an ofrenda, a traditional altar for Day of the Dead, housed inside the "dome". The event had one of the teachers sing a song on the guitar, and the first and second graders did a song and dance in Spanish. The most fun part was for the older kids - they built skeletons representing the various teachers, and then recited poems they wrote about them. Afterward, they had tamales for everyone.
Poem and skeleton for a teacher
The Ofrenda
The opening act
I got to school a little early, and got to watch my second graders do their Movement class. It's sort of like P.E., and they run around and do various games, and it looks like FUN. It was nice to see first hand what goes on during the day.
Another bonus of being early: Since the second graders are now a class all by themselves, I got to do the definitive demographic breakdown of the class. There are thirteen kids, eight girls and five boys. Six kids are Spanish speaking, five are English speaking, and two are totally bilingual. The boys all speak English.
After the event, I got a ride home with Jorge and Haydee, a really nice Mexican couple we see everywhere. Jorge is a private Lear Jet pilot for some super-rich Mexican industrialist. They moved to San Miguel from Mexico City this year, just to place their son Jorge into our Waldorf school. Jorge is really into the arts and drama, and has performed in some very large productions already as a fourth grader. He is their only child, and they relocated here just to send Jorge to the perfect school. He is a really nice kid.
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