The Latinos Unidos de M-A (LUMA) Club hosted a celebration of Día de los Muertos for M-A students and faculty on November 1st and 2nd.
Día de los Muertos offers people a chance to reconnect with deceased loved ones and celebrate their lives. LUMA brought the annual celebration to the M-A campus, hosting a two-day event on M-A's green, which included an altar, face painting, and a station to write messages to the deceased.
LUMA's altar featured images of loved ones and messages to honor them. Among those featured on the altar was M-A campus aide Deanie Ta'ufo'uo, and a touching poster signed by students and faculty alike in remembrance.
Besides photos, the altar was adorned with ceramic skulls, vivid paper flowers, candles, and pan de muerto.
Pan de Muerto, or bread of the dead, is a traditional sweet roll baked in the weeks leading up to Día de los Muertos.
Despite its macabre subject matter, Día de los Muertos is a positive holiday. Tradition states that the dead would be offended by sadness and grieving, so family members make sure the event is joyful and full of festivities.
Besides creating the altar, LUMA members also treated M-A students to a face painting station, where they painted the hands and faces of excited students to look like grinning white skulls.
"People paint their faces with skulls to celebrate death. There's a power that comes with accepting that one day we will all be bones."
- LUMA Co-President Jessica Chavez-Navarro
Each painted face depicted a brightly painted skull, reflecting the holiday's joyous mood.
At another table, LUMA handed out paper marigolds, or cempasúchil, for M-A students to attach to messages to those who have passed away. Although loved ones were the common recipients, some messages were directed towards celebrities such as Prince and Amy Winehouse.
The bright colors of cempasúchil and offerings from loved ones are said to guide spirits to the altars.
"Our family members aren't truly dead until we forget them. They stay alive in our hearts and spirits as we remember who they were, what they like, and how they impacted our lives."
- Chavez-Navarro
While LUMA represents the latino population of M-A, it also draws the students and faculty of M-A together. By bringing Día de los Muertos to M-A, LUMA has made the holiday's culture and rich traditions accessible to M-A's diverse population of students who may not have known of it otherwise.
