MORGAN HENDERSON
Staff Writer
Day of the Dead will be celebrated on campus this semester by mixing some competition with tradition. On Nov. 1, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., an altar competition will take place in the Reed Library Commons.
Some of those competing include students from professor Diane Everett’s Spanish 215 course, the History Club and the Childhood Education Club. All together there will be around seven to ten altars.
Ellen Litwicki is especially excited for the celebration.
“Day of the Dead has long been one of my favorite holidays. I admire the attitude toward death expressed through the rituals of this holiday, and I love the idea that departed souls can cross the membrane between death and life on this one day to visit their loved ones. The holiday has such positive energy . . . ” she said.
Litwicki had the opportunity to experience an authentic Day of the Dead right in the heart of Mexico. It was there that the idea to bring the celebration to campus was born. Although this isn’t Fredonia’s first altar competition, it is the first time it is being opened up to all students.
“ . . . professor Carmen Rivera and I traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico to view and participate in Day of the Dead events a few years ago, and afterward we discussed the possibility of having a celebration of this holiday on campus,” she said. “Last year we, joined by professor Everett, had the first celebration which was limited to students in certain classes. We found out that Geneseo has an annual altar contest, so we decided this year to try opening it to student organizations.”
Students have enjoyed this event in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
“I think it, in part, it is an extension of their love of Halloween. But it also introduces them to new traditions and ways of thinking about death and life,” said Litwicki. “So I hope that it will enhance and spread the spirit of this period each year, between Oct. 31 and Nov. 2, when traditions from various cultural roots suggest that the dead can cross over the membrane between death and life and return to earth temporarily. It also gives them a place to demonstrate their creativity.”
Rivera and Everett have also been involved in the planning. The events for Day of the Dead this year have been funded with grants from the Carnahan Jackson Humanities Fund of the Fredonia College Foundation and the Faculty Student Association of Fredonia.
To provide more information on creating an altar, there will be a workshop on Oct. 26 from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Williams Center room S204. One of the topics to be discussed will be traditional Day of the Dead make-up.
Following the informational meeting, professor Regina Marchi will be giving a talk about the holiday at 6:30 p.m.
Altars will be constructed in Reed Library on the afternoon of Nov. 1, and they will be on display in the library from Nov. 2 to Nov. 8. Prizes will be awarded for best altar and best makeup; cookies and hot chocolate will be served.