Wyant College of Optical Sciences Students Celebrate Día de Los Muertos

This year at Meinel, students have taken up creating our very own ofrenda to celebrate Día de Los Muertos.

Every 1st and 2nd of November, Mexican tradition honors our departed with an ofrenda. The ofrenda is a ritual where we can summon the memory of our departed by putting on it their favorite food and beverages, their pictures, flowers, candles, and also their favorite items! Each item in the ofrenda is meant to invite the departed, with candles to “light the way” back to our world or food and beverage to strengthen them after their journey back to our world. The ofrenda is decorated with sugar skulls that symbolize death which is natural and always present in our lives, bright orange flowers known in Nahuatl as Zempoalxóchitl (cempasúchil) or marigold flowers. The Mexican indigenous believed the Zempoalxóchitl had curative properties, nowadays this flower is used for decoration of the ofrenda. The papel picado, colorful papers with holes patterns in them, are meant to blow in the breeze, representing the wind and a soul's journey to visit the living. 

Derived from indigenous beliefs, Día de los Muertos is celebrated widely not just in Mexico but in other Latin American countries too! Every country celebrates Día de Los Muertos differently.

In Mexico, part of the tradition evolved into celebrating this day with pan de muerto, a sweet bread baked in the month of October which can be found in Mexican bakeries or supermarkets and enjoyed whenever! Every year, all over Mexico people celebrate Día de los Muertos with parades showcasing ofrendas that people make. And also by visiting the graveyard of the departed. This celebration is a nice way to never forget those that are no longer with us! 

This November 1-3, stop by the 8th floor patio to help celebrate our loved ones, or add a picture of your own. This Thursday, November 2nd, join us to celebrate Día de los Muertos and eat pan de muerto from 4-5pm on the 8th floor patio.