Dia de los Muertos

Dia de los Muertos (“Day of the Dead”) is a Mexican holiday celebrating life and death, specifically remembering loved ones who have died. Traditionally, it is a two-day holiday that believes we are reunited with our loved ones. Families build altars called ofrendas (“offerings”) with photos of their beloved deceased and decorate it with yellow marigolds, and their favorite foods to encourage them to visit from the land of the dead.

The origins of Dia de los Muertos is non-Christian and we, as Catholics, don’t believe the souls of our loved ones will “visit” us on these two days (as portrayed in the popular movie Coco.) However, we do believe that our loved ones remain alive in Christ (John 11:25) and we can (and should) pray for them. In the Catholic Church, our celebration of life after death is especially evident during All Saints’ Day on November 1 and All Souls’ Day on November 2. These feast days emphasize the Communion of Saints and the fact that we are still connected to those who died before us.

Dia de los Muertos is celebrated during these feast days and the traditions of praying for the dead, visiting and cleaning graves, making commemorative altars, enjoying a special meal to celebrate their lives are all meaningful acts that unite our hearts to theirs.

Although I’m Hispanic, I’ve never celebrated Dia de los Muertos. My first real glimpse into the holiday was during the aforementioned movie Coco. We were visiting my parents at the time, and the kids and I accompanied them to watch the movie. I loved it! A year and a half later, my mom passed away from cancer and the desire to honor her life inspired me to incorporate Dia de los Muertos with our Catholic feast days.

We started by building a Catholic version of the ofrenda, emphasizing praying for the dead.

First I cleared off our normal prayer table and switch the icon from the Sacred Heart to Divine Mercy.

Then I found boxes to serve as tiers for our altar.

I covered the boxes and the table with a yellow table cloth and some Mexican style table runners and place mats that I bought at Target a couple years ago. I also found similar ones in a local Mexican market. We added items such as:  Photos of deceased family members, papel picado (colorful paper flags), yellow marigolds, and (battery operated) votive candles.

There’s also a crucifix, icon of Our Lady of Sorrows, holy card of St. Joseph (patron of a happy death.)

I used PicMonkey to create the pictured prayer for the dead. (PicMonkey has a “day of the dead” theme with appropriate graphics.) I placed the prayer in a 5×7 picture frame.

I saved the photo as a PDF and put it in my Google Drive if you’d like to print it out and use it for your prayer table.

We placed another frame on the altar that has the names of family members and friends who have died.

Together these are a reminder that our loved ones are gone, but not forgotten. Our prayers and love for them remains strong.

If you don’t want to make a big ofrenda, you can do a smaller version with the a few photos, a candle, and the prayer card on a shelf. A couple years ago, before we created an ofrenda, I made this print (using PicMonkey) to display the photos of relatives who have recently died, along with the Faithful Departed prayer. We placed the photo on our little prayer table in the family room (next to where we eat) and we recite the prayer when we say grace before eating dinner.

All Souls Day Prayer & Family Photos

I downloaded the photo to Google Drive. You could download the photo template and use PicMonkey to make your own version, like I did, or you can simply print out a copy and write in the name of your loved ones or even tape their photo(s) to it.

All Saints Day

On the feast of All Saints Day, we celebrate the saints of the church, both known and unknown, who have reached heaven.

When the kids were younger, they’d dress up as their favorite saints and attend All Saints’ Day parties.

Now that they are older, they don’t dress up, but we attend Mass together as a family and during our evening prayers, we pray the Litany of the Saints.

The kids may be too old for costumes, but they’re never to old for special treats! The cute tableware and the paper decorations are from Be A Heart.com.

All Souls’ Day

The Communion of Saints is comprised of three group: The Church Triumphant, the faithful who have died and are now in heaven. The Church Militant, those of us on earth still on our journey to Heaven. And the Church Penitent, the faithful departed who are still expiating their sins in Purgatory. All Souls Day is dedicated to this, often forgotten, portion of God’s family.

“All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1030)”

The Church encourages and gives us ample opportunity to pray for the dead in the month of November. Our prayers, Masses, indulgences, sacrifices, and works of mercy are our way of loving and helping the Faithful Departed.

On All Souls’ Day, we visit our local cemetery, where my father-in-law is buried. We clean his grave and add fresh flowers. It’s interesting to see other graves and how families have decorated them with flowers and items that they loved.

I give each of the kids a handful of flowers and allow them to walk around the cemetery and choose people who don’t have any flowers or decorations.

They offer a prayer for them and leave a flower at their grave.

Their choices have included older persons, young kids, soldiers, priests and religious, and a teen who recently took his life. One of the people I prayed for was a woman with the same name as my mom since her grave was too far away for me to visit. It was a moving experience.

Together Dia De Los Muertos, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day remind us that this life is a journey towards Heaven and death cannot separate us from the love we share with each other. The grief of loss is tempered with the knowledge that, God willing, we will all be together again one day.

How do you celebrate these feast days? I’d love to hear your traditions. 🙂

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