El Dia de Los Muertos is Saturday, November 2. It’s a day set aside for families to celebrate deceased loved ones.
In Evansville, a festival was held at the West Branch of the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library system (EVPL).
Eric Ridenour Montessori Academy elementary teacher is helping students assemble the colorful and vibrant Dia De los Muertos ‘Art Parade’ the academy holds annually at the festival.
They’re surrounded by figures and skeletons of paper maché and foam.
“Skeletons doing all manner of things … getting married, we got some on a teeter totter over there, got one going to a party, and we've got our mariachi team.”
“The imagery is just colorful and wonderful. And we just have kind of thrown ourselves completely into it, head first.”
This festival included Latin dance lessons, sugar skull painting, lawn activities and even the important Ofrendas — personal, candle-lit altars to deceased loved ones inside the library.
There was an Ofrendas Scavenger hunt.
This is the eighth annual event, and is a joint effort between the Montessori Academy the EVPL and the Signature School.
Heather O’Grady is Chief Operating Officer at the EVPL. She said holding the festival is part of creating a welcoming, inclusive community.
“We want to make sure that we are all learning about each other's cultures, about each other's heritages and celebrate together all of our important milestones, our celebrations.”
She said up to 2,000 attend the festival. Signature School Spanish teacher Karla Razor is dressed as the icon of El Dia de Los Muertos, La Catrina.
“I'm from Honduras, so I didn't grow up celebrating this tradition,” she said. “So by teaching, I fell in love with this tradition.”
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