Oak Forest HS Hispanic Club Hosts Day of the Dead Festivities

Oak Forest High School Hispanic Club hosted the Day of the Dead Festivities on October 31 in a special presentation. The day is known as “El Día de los Muertos” and it is a 3,000 year old tradition which celebrates life and death and honors those who have died.

In the celebration, the club presented a slide show and a short movie which educated audiences, which were Spanish and English Language Learner classes, about El Día De Los Muertos. They also highlighted traditional things of this cultural celebration, such as the family ofrenda, or altar. On that ofrenda, families would place pictures of their loved ones, food that their loved ones liked to eat, sugar skulls, marigolds, tamales and mole, a cross or a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and water and salt. They emphasized that this holiday is not a sad holiday; it is a happy holiday where the souls of the departed bring good luck.

The highlight of the presentation was El Baile de Los Viejítos, or the Dance of the Old Men. Several members of the Hispanic Club dressed in traditional costumes and stomped on the floor with canes in a traditional folk dance.

After the presentations, students could visit various stations where they could get their faces painted, decorate sugar skulls, sample delicious Pan De Muertos, or Bread of the Dead, or they could write messages to their loved ones on the Oak Forest High School ofrenda, or altar.

Students enjoyed the activities and everyone learned a little about El Día de los Muertos.