Pensacola is celebrating Dia de los Muertos. What is the 'Day of the Dead?' all about?
Community members will have the opportunity to gather together to honor, celebrate and remember the special people in their lives who have passed on during the Dia de los Muertos — or Day of the Dead — event on Wednesday.
Hosted by La Mexicana Supermarket and La Costa Latina Newspaper, the free celebration will be held from 4-8 p.m. at La Mexicana Supermarket, 9101 Pensacola Blvd., and will include traditional activities such as face paintings, crafts, piñatas and "folklorico," or traditional Mexican cultural dances. A large altar has been built where the public can bring pictures of their loved ones who have died.
Grace Resendez McCaffery, owner of Latino Media Gulf Coast Inc., describes Dia de los Muertos as a time to remember, love and celebrate the ancestors who paved the way for future generations and shaped who they are today.
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“They have a huge impact on us whether we realize it or not. They may not be people that we knew in our lifetime, but their culture, their way of life, their DNA, they’re carried on through us,” McCaffery said. “And so it leaves an impact on us one way or another.”
Dia de los Muertos, observed from Nov. 1 to Nov. 2 in Mexico and other Latin American countries, is a holiday where families welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives and also make peace with death through a celebration of food, drink and traditions.
The celebration dates back to the Aztecs who would use skulls to honor and welcome back the dead to the living world. After the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, the Catholic Church blended indigenous celebrations into the Catholic calendar where it coincides with All Saints Day on Nov. 1 and All Souls Day on Nov. 2.
Cemeteries are decorated with offerings, flowers, candles, chocolate skulls or deceased loved ones' favorite items. Those in Pensacola who do not have relatives buried in the city will often decorate their homes with an altar and pictures of deceased loved ones.
"It's not necessarily mourning, it is celebrating the lives of these people. And that's not always something that people want to do publicly. And it's not something that everybody understands either, so for some people doing it privately at home is a better option," McCaffery said.
Still, McCaffery wanted to have this organized celebration to encourage people to continue with their traditions, or for those who did not grow up with these traditions to explore them.
Arnold Balderas grew up in the United States, but his family is from the state of Veracruz in Mexico. He said events like the the Dia de los Muertos allow him to express his culture out in the open.
"It's about learning and loving. I'll pay respects to your grandparent, you pay respects to mine, we smile together and it's just about that — just about bringing everyone together as a community, as a whole, as we should be," Balderas said. "Because in the end, that should be the end goal for all of us humans. It's a golden rule to love others as you love yourself."
For Balderas, Dia de los Muertos is a time when we can remember when someone who has left an imprint on our mind, soul and who we are today.
"I'll do an altar, put their pictures up there and everything like that as well, to celebrate the hugs, the kisses, and the memories they had with me that and the love they shared," Balderas said. "I just I feel like it's almost like internal intuition of a feeling that just draws you to it."
For more information go the the Dia de los Muertos Pensacola 2022 event page on Facebook or the Latino Media Gulf Coast Inc. Facebook page.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Dia de los Muertos will celebrate at La Mexicana Supermarket
