East Lansing resident Susan Murphy talks with 4-year-old Dewitt resident Elizabeth Raddell Friday evening at the All Saints Episcopal Church, 800 Abbot Road, for their Day of the Dead celebration that included food, music and a shrine. Murphy painted her face as a way of “laughing at death.”
Nicolas Gisholt celebrated his first Day of the Dead in the United States with relatives from Mexico: His grandparents, nanny and wife’s grandfather all were a part of the evening’s festivities — if not in body, in spirit.
Traditional Day of the Dead items like loaves of bread, sugar skulls, marigolds and candles covered the altar at the celebration Friday at All Saints Episcopal Church, 800 Abbot Road.
Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, is a Mexican Catholic tradition honoring loved ones who have passed. It is celebrated Nov. 1, All Saints’ Day, and Nov. 2, All Souls’ Day.
“In Mexico, (Day of the Dead) is a celebration of life and death,” said Gisholt, an academic adviser for the College of Social Science. “It’s a different way of looking at something that can be a sad time.”
People typically bring and place on the altar photos of their deceased loved ones and mementos representing something those people may have enjoyed.
Gisholt said he brought photos of his relatives for the altar and some loaves of bread for his grandparents who liked bread.
The event also featured a mariachi band and potluck Mexican dinner.
Rev. Sarah Midzalkowski, chaplain of Canterbury MSU, a group of Episcopal and Anglican students from MSU, Lansing Community College and Cooley Law School, said the Day of the Dead celebration is one of the ways the church is reaching out into the community.
The experience, she said, has taught her a lot more about Mexican culture and got her interested in celebrating those who have died.
“I think we’re getting away from tangible, physical remnants of the dead,” Midzalkowski said. “More people are being cremated and having their ashes spread, or they’re buried far away from their relatives. It’s building an alternative, tangible way to honor and remember them.”
Ben Tipton and Amanda Mazzio, along with classmates from their teacher education course human diversity, power and opportunity in social institutions, also checked out Day of the Dead for an assignment they received to attend an event outside their comfort zone.
But the classmates said the event wasn’t as far out of their comfort zones as they were expecting.
Tipton, a history junior, said he was expecting a traditional holiday celebration — one that was different from an American experience of death.
“The main idea is the same — celebrating those who have died,” said Mazzio, a Spanish freshman.
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