DÍA DE LOS MUERTOSBY LAUREN S.

PURPOSE OF THE ALTARS

Altars are created to honor the dead. Mexicans believe that after you die, you go onto the afterlife and visit each year on November 1st and 2nd. Altars are meant to kind of summon the dead and to help them find their way home. It’s also to commemorate and honor the lives of those we have lost.

THE ALTAR I MADE

For the pictures on my altar, I tried to include only the necessary pictures of my grandfather. It was hard to narrow down which pictures I would use because I had about 3 times the amount of pictures then those that ended up on the altar.

PICTURES

The flowers I put on my altar were fake because apparently ‘marigolds are out of season’ and ‘it’s pointless to look’. I made the flowers out of tissue paper instead. After I finished the flowers I put them in a vase I found at my grandpa’s house.

VASE OF FLOWERS

Candles are used as a flag to lead the dead home. Day of the Dead is also typically celebrated at night, so fire illuminates the altar.

CANDLES

Salt is used to represent the continuance of life. My grandpa also used to put salt on virtually everything.

SALT

Water is put on altars to refresh the dead. This can also be substituted with other drinks if the subject of the altar preferred another drink.

WATER

• Tabasco Sauce

• I included the Tabasco Sauce because my grandpa used it on everything and always had a bottle of it next to his recliner.

• Camera

• I included the camera because it was one of his old cameras and he was a photographer.

• Blue ribbon

• I included this blue ribbon because it represents colon cancer and that was the cause of his death.

PERSONAL ITEMS

RESOURCES

http://www.celebrate-day-of-the-dead.com/dia-de-los-muertos-altar.html