Island Park Celebrates Dia de los Muertos

Mercer Island, WA, November 1, 2024 – Island Park Elementary is celebrating Dia de Los Muertos.

The main hallway display case at Island Park has been populated by students at the school to celebrate family members, loved ones, and pets who have passed. The display case could also be called an Ofrenda, which translates to the word "offering" and refers to a home altar paying respects to people who have passed away.

Students at the school were excited to take part in this project acknowledging an event of cultural importance to the greater community.

Kira Falk, a student in Griffen Jones fifth grade class said “I think it’s really fun. It gives students a thing to put in there and an activity that everyone can get involved in and it’s not too big a deal that everyone is like super crazy about it. I think it’s nice to show all the fun culture in it. We made decorations in class. Making paper flags and coloring in skulls and decorating that and I think that is really fun as well.”

When asked why she thought this project was important Falk said “First of all it shows a lot of culture and in that sense, we were learning about it, not just decorating. We were learning about the holiday itself. Also, it’s a great way for students to kind of show off some of their artistic abilities and kind of a fun way to mourn the dead people in your life.”

Listen to fifth grade students Kira Falk and Kate Oberto speak about Dia de los Muertos

“I like it. We are celebrating people who have died and we are not being sad that they have passed. We’re celebrating the life that they had and their culture,” said Finley Daviscourt, a student in Shelley Wangen’s fourth grade class. “Everybody has a culture and they are all different. And we all have different opinions. People from different areas might do different things, like some people celebrate Halloween and some people don’t celebrate Halloween and other holidays. They might not believe in it but they probably have stuff they believe that we don’t. We all have different beliefs.”

Listen to fourth grade student Finley Daviscourt speak about Dia de los Muertos

Kate Oberto, a student in Jones’ class said “We can learn about all these different cultures and religions and we can do all these fun art projects that are creative. We can respect all the people who have passed. It’s fun to learn about the different cultures and to make all the little projects we do for the cultures.”

The Island Park Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Team sent various resources to Island Park teachers to use for introducing and teaching about the history and details of Dia de los Muertos.

The Team outlined the purpose of the Dia de Los Muertos project: “We want children to learn about other cultures to foster empathy, respect, and understanding for people from different backgrounds, helping them develop a global perspective and navigate a diverse world by appreciating various traditions, beliefs, and perspectives, ultimately promoting inclusivity and reducing prejudice; essentially, learning about other cultures equips children to better interact with people from different walks of life with openness and acceptance.”

Marlo Blair and Diego Orbegozo are two students in Paola Sanchez’s fourth/fifth grade class at the school and they both liked how the Ofrenda was continually updated by students.  

Blair said “I think it’s important because putting my great grandmother’s picture in the Ofrenda, I think it makes me feel welcome to the school. I really did like the project. I also really liked checking out how we added it on over the month, because a couple of weeks ago my teacher was like “who wants to do this?”  and I said “ok I’ll do it“ so I came over and took my picture and put it in there and it just went on from there.”

Orbegozo said “With the display in the hallway I look at it every day and see it expand and grow and I feel so touched because there are so many people and pets on that Ofrenda.”

Listen to student Marlo Blair and Diego Orbegozo speak about Dia de los Muertos

The Mexican Museum website, which is associated with the Smithsonian Institution, has this description of Día de los Muertos: Día de los Muertos acknowledges the symbiotic relationship between life and death. El día de Los Muertos is celebrated on November 1st and November 2nd, in which the spirits of the dead are believed to return home and spend time with their relatives on these two days. To welcome them, the family built altars in their honor. These altars have a series of different components that vary from one culture to another that mostly include yellow marigolds, candles, photos of the deceased ones, papel picado or cut tissue-paper designs, as well as food and beverages offerings for the dead.