TODAY, to mark the Day of the Dead Celebrations taking place over the next two days, Centro Escolar Mexico Junior College in the Corozal District organized and put together their very own Day of the Dead altar at their campus. Jomarie Lanza headed North today to visit the school's "Ofrenda" and learn more about the upcoming finados celebrations.
Dia De Los Muertos, also known as the day of the dead, Los Finados or All saints Day is observed between the days of October 31st to November 2nd. The Mayas believed that every year on these days the dead would return to visit their loved ones, and in celebration of their return, families would set up Ofrendas or altars in their homes filled with all the food, and items favored by their loved ones during their time alive.
It is a time of remembrance and reflection for some, signifying that love is not lost once a loved one passes, but instead their memory and the love that was shared lives on through us.
It is commonly practiced and celebrated in the northern and Western districts, and today Centro Escolar de Mexico's Junior college students placed their altar on display at the school, adorned with all the elements, and offerings a traditional ofrenda would display.
Astrid Cal, Teacher, CEMJC
"The students of the tourism management programme tagged along with Galen university, and we have a representative today, the president of the SGA we worked together to put up this alter students brought together the traditions and believes and this is an effort to maintain cultural heritage and they brought food and pictures of their loved ones and the objective for today is for them to pass on to future generations the beliefs and the customs the values that we are losing today. Also students were able to put along, If you Can notice they're the Jicara that's a Mayan object for the dead. It's honoring and remembering the persons that departed and so some students brought along the pictures of their loved ones, food that their loved ones use to like to eat and today is a day to honor them so that's how it was put together."
Jo-
"Why is it important that we keep this certain aspect of our culture alive? I know that this is something that is practiced by the elderly and since they are dying out and passing away you don't see these things happening as often."
Astrid Cal, Teacher, CEMJC
"That's right so it's important particularly that we keep traditions alive and beliefs and values and this is one way that we can pass on to the younger generations the importance of our traditions and being proud of who we are so that we don't lose this influence that and the impact of those individuals that are no longer with us in our communities."
Inar Anduez, Tourism Student
"Well we have prepared one special event here creating this altar for the souls however as a tourism student we focused more about the souls here and also brought back the representation of them. However there are three types of altars, one is for the adults and another is for the children and the last one is the alter of Los Solos where the four elements we have is the fire water wind and the earth."
"We practice this Dia de Los muertos so that they don't feel that we have forgotten them also this event is special because we also have the chance to bring back the past which was special when we had them by our sides."
Los Finados is a time for remembering, thinking fondly of those who may have left an impact on our lives while they were alive. And At the center of the CEMJC's altar sat the picture of Jorge Vargas, the young college student who tragically passed away a year before in a motor vehicle accident while traveling home from school.
Jo-
"I noticed that you guys also have Jorge's picture up on the altar. Would you say that this is a way for them to continue grieving and trying to keep his memory alive at the school?"
Astrid Cal, Teacher, CEMJC
"Yes, one of the students, well most of the students have had a direct impact on today's event and the main reason for that is because we lost one of our students Jorge. So students are taking the time to remember their good times they had with Jorge in school and outside of school as well and this is also a way to treasure the memories because that's all we will be leaving when we depart."
Galen's alumni also contributed towards CEMJC's altar, to highlight its cultural significance:
Arely Aspinall, Student President of Galen University
"So Galen wanted to participate along with Centro as a collaboration so we can give the students a bit more knowledge towards the meaning of the Finados in Belize and the reason why we asked Centro or Galen is because we wanted to be apart of everything together so we collaborated in putting a bit of the meaning towards it along with the poster that is aside so that we can have the students read out on how the altars are done in the north and that is how Banquitas became a part of that as well. The Banquitas house of culture in Orange Walk helped us with the information on how the altars and done here in the north."
And while this school has gotten into the Dia de los Muertos Spirit, Banquitas House of culture in Orange Walk is also in preparation mode for their Finados celebration, which will be held on Thursday.
Cindey Rivero, Coordinator, Banquitas House of Culture
"The House of Culture celebrates dia de Finados annually, today is known as all saints day but we do a celebration on the 2nd November for all souls where we will be setting up an altar with different offerings and different important elements for this occasion. Finados you know is food for the soul for all our loved ones that have departed. We set up on the altar their favorite food, some treats, some drinks and some traditional dishes that they would normally have while they were living. The house of culture is preparing like an exhibition to ignite the schools to come over so that the students can learn a bit about the celebration, why it is important and why some of the elements are placed on the altar. In addition to that we will be having three different displays we are going to be showing the children how we make the bees wax candles the different processes that it takes because the candles are very important for the celebration. We also have the preparation of the gourds, in the past we used natural objects to put on the alatar so we are going to be showing how to prepare those gourds as well and finally we are going to be having a demonstration of the typical drinks that are used like the atole the ishpasha, the atole de masa and you know share that with the children so that they can learn okay we have the sweets how do we prepare the sweets, we have the candle all the important elements that we use for the altars."
