“Flowers for the Dead,” by Merle Reivich
By Yael Menahem
Oregon Daily Emerald
Skeletons, skulls, vodka and alcohol.
Sounds like a Halloween party, but these are
actually a few items that represent the holy day
called Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.
The celebrations primarily take place in vil
lages all around Mexico where the deceased are
believed to visit the living for one day out of the
year.
As a result, their families build altars for them,
with food offerings such as turkey with mole
sauce to the deceased’s favorite drink, be it vodka
or beer. The choice depends on the family’s so
cial status, history professor Stephanie Wood
said.
The living relatives also light candles in the
cemeteries and decorate tombs with marigolds.
The entire process typifies the ambivalent atti
tude that Latin Americans have toward death,
Wood noted.
“Even though they have a great respect for
death, they poke fun at death,” she said, explain
ing the difference in attitudes toward death be
tween Mexico and the rest of the Western world.
“They think that death is a continuation of life,
it’s part of the life cycle.”
To commemorate these practices, the Maude
Kerns Art Center is celebrating with the Sixth
Annual Day of the Dead Exhibition. The event
features paintings, photographs and various oth
er media works centered around Day of the Dead
themes,
done by
22 differ
e n t
artists, in
eluding
one from
Eugene.
Tina
Schrager, cura
tor of this year’s
exhibit, said that
the art center has
made this exhibit an
annual event because
Day of the Dead falls
around Halloween and it
sparks the curiosity of those who want to see
how other cultures understand death.
The Maude Kerns Art Center is located at
1910 E. 15th Ave. Admission is a $2 suggest
ed donation. The art center’s hours are from 10
a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and
from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. The Day of the
Dead exhibit runs through Nov. 13.
»®sg|gffpipp
007686
Reserved Seating Tickets:
UO Students $10 (plus service charge)
General Public $20 (plus service charge)
Tickets on sale now at
EMU Ticket Off ice and
all Fastixx Outlets!
For information please call the
UO Cultural Forum at 346-4373
007005
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