Today we celebrated Dia de los Muertos (The day of the Dead) in class. Dia de los Muertos is a predominantly Mexican tradition (though it is also celebrated in some of the Northern Central American countries) in which people celebrate and pay tribute to their dead ancestors. Though the holiday is traditionally associated with Halloween it is actually a celebration that takes place over a number of days culminating on November second. During this time Mexicans partake in a number of events including cleaning and decorating the graves of their dead relatives, making and eating a number of traditional foods, and dressing up in costumes and holding festivals.
In class we began by having a short discussion of the roots of our celebration of Halloween, and then watched a video on the Day of the Dead celebration. We ended with a questionaire to help the students to better process the information in the film.
Tomorrow is my big day! The beginning of the unit that I will be teaching, which will last through November. I am really excited and a bit nervous. The book that we work with focuses on a different part of the Spanish speaking world each two chapters, and in this chapter we are headed to Mexico. Accordingly, after a bit of general transition work, tomorrow we will be learning about Mexico and hopefully get an opportunity to hear about the experiences of some off the students who have traveled there.
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