photo by: contributed

A flyer provides details about he University of Kansas Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies upcoming community Día de los Muertos celebration.

A community Día de los Muertos celebration will include Mexican folkloric dancing, stories, food and an ofrenda where attendees can offer a remembrance of their deceased loved ones.

The University of Kansas Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies will host the free event Monday from 5 to 8:30 p.m. at South Park. In addition to the festivities, Amanda Hill, outreach, events and office manager for the center, said that attendees would also be able to learn about the holiday, including the colorfully decorated ofrendas that are central to the celebration.

“Ofrenda means offering, and so it’s kind of a table and a place, usually in people’s homes but also set up in graveyard areas, for people to have a physical place of remembrance to visit with their family members,” Hill said.

Día de los Muertos originated among the Aztec people and is a two-day celebration marking the period when it’s believed the barrier is lifted between the worlds of the living and the dead, allowing the deceased to visit their living loved ones. Families create the ofrenda, typically decorated with flowers, candles, photos and other mementos, and include their loved one’s favorite food or drinks to aid in their journey between the two realms. Marigolds or marigold petals help the dead find their way.

The family-friendly celebration will include entertainment, snacks, crafts and an educational history of Día de los Muertos. More specifically, Hill said there would be a Mexican folkloric dance performance and children’s stories about the holiday. Mexican hot chocolate and pan de muerto, a sweet bread with a design of bones on top, will be available for free, and tacos will be available for purchase. Hill said the tacos would be made by Chetan Michie of Latchkey Deli, and both vegetarian and meat options would be available.

photo by: contributed photo

Mexican folkloric dancers Isabel Carttar, foreground, and Dacia Starr perform as part of the 2019 Día de los Muertos celebration.

Regarding the educational component, Hill said informational displays would be on hand, as well as items such as sugar skulls and figurines of Aztec gods. She said the display would include information about how the Aztec people typically celebrated the holiday, how Spanish colonization and Catholicism affected the holiday, and how people celebrate it today in Mexico and other parts of Latin America.

Hill said the community ofrenda would be created with the help of Mariel Ferreiro and Angel Hernandez. Hernandez will be helping to explain the ofrenda as part of the educational component. As part of the celebration, attendees are invited to place photos of their deceased family or friends or other mementos on the ofrenda, which Hill said could then be collected at the end of the evening.

“This is going to be a real community ofrenda, so we are encouraging people to bring pictures of their loved ones or items that they would like to place on the ofrenda,” Hill said.

The Día de los Muertos event kicks off a week of programing for the center’s Latinx Week, which includes performances, a cooking tutorial and a film screening. Events are free unless otherwise indicated and include the following:

• Tuesday: Poetry, prose and other performances centered on identity and heritage will take place from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. at McLain’s Market on campus, 1420 Crescent Road. Presenters include Ariadna Tenorio, Robert Hicks Jr., Valentina Rivera-Rodríguez, Margarita Alely Nuñez Arroyo and Ignacio Carvajal.

• Wednesday: Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies will host a virtual cooking tutorial of Latin American food on its social media.

• Thursday: The three-time Grammy-nominated Afro-Caribbean music group Tiempo Libre will join the KU Symphony Orchestra for a performance at 7:30 p.m. at the Lied Center. Tickets are $25 for adults and $14 for students and youth.

• Friday: Film screening of Sundance Film Festival winner “Son of Monarchs,” which tells the story of a Mexican biologist living in New York who returns to his hometown in the monarch butterfly forests of Michoacán. The screening is co-sponsored by KU Film and Media Studies and will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at Lawrence High School.

More information about all the events is available on the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies’ Facebook page, facebook.com/kuclacs.