While our Chinese teacher was guiding her students through a museum field trip, our Spanish teacher was preparing for the celebration of The Day of the Dead. According to Senora Knapik who is originally from Ecuador, Dia de los Muertosa is more specifically a Mexican holiday. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. The celebration takes place on October 31, November 1 and November 2. Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars called ofrendas, honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts. According to Wikipedia, scholars trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years and to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl. The holiday has spread throughout the world.
Heide is careful to emphasize the celebratory aspect of the holiday as she shares with her young students pictures of her grandparents and speaks of them fondly. Since it wasn't possible to give the traditional sugar skulls to all her students, she very cleverly decorated marshmallows with little chocolate faces and distributed them. Notice also, that her disguise only covers half her face so that her young students could recognize her and not be frightened. It must have worked because her students all had a great day.
