It is a remembrance of people past, these Day of the Dead celebrations that are part of Mexican tradition. And on the streets of the Pilsen neighborhood last week, generations gathered with a mix of reverence and wit so apropos to the day that remembers those who have died.
Several hundred students from St. Procopius grade school and Our Lady of Tepeyac high school marked El Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) on Nov. 1 with a procession of papier mache puppets called mojigangas, printed banners, colorful cut paper called papel picado and dances.
They placed vibrant yellow-orange marigolds on a Day of the Dead community altar erected outside the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum that was already filled with foods and candles, among other things, to help the deceased in the afterlife.
The procession, in its third year, was begun as a way to help neighborhood children understand the rituals and traditions associated with the annual holiday that traces its roots to Mexico’s indigenous cultures.
