‘Day of Dead’ Tradition Finds Some Young Fans

Stripped to its bare-boned essentials, the Day of the Dead can be somewhat daunting to a young child who is experiencing it for the first time.

There are the tiny replicas of human skeletons scattered around a candle-lit altar. There are the skulls carved from sugar that stare vacantly at the offerings of “dead bread” that are laid out next to the smoking sticks of incense.

And there’s the knowledge that Halloween--with its witches and ghosts and goblins--is just around the corner.

Some of that may have been running through Krista Pilkenton’s 8-year-old mind Saturday as she waited for a two-day series of Dia de los Muertos workshops for kids to begin at the Los Angeles Children’s Museum.

“I’m not sure what ‘Day of the Dead’ is,” admitted blond-haired Krista, of Cypress. “Is it a Halloween movie or something scary like that?”

Museum workers were quick to explain that the Day of the Dead is an age-old family tradition in Mexico and other Latin American countries that honors the memories of the deceased. The personalized, lighthearted celebrations are staged each Nov. 2

The event is a blending of the Christian concept of death and an ancient Indian tradition that holds that the dead sometimes visit the living and partake of the offerings left on the altar.

“It’s not morbid or sad,” said Joan Harrison, a museum program director. “The skeletons are wearing bright costumes like they would be wearing if they were alive.”

The downtown museum, located across the street from City Hall, has conducted annual Dia de los Muertos educational sessions since a museum volunteer suggested the idea five years ago, Harrison said.

“I’d heard about the concept when I lost a baby,” said the volunteer, Thelma Garcia. “I found that it was a mental health process, a process of letting go. It is a time to be happy and rejoice.”

For their altar, Harrison and Garcia purchased fruit and ordered the traditional pan de los muertos sweet bread from an Echo Park bakery. The altar’s tiny skeletons and skulls were brought from Oaxaca, Mexico, by a friend.

Children visiting the museum Saturday were invited to fashion small artifacts from clay or cardboard and dedicate them to the memory of deceased family members or others.

“This is for those who died in the earthquake,” a boy named Stephen scrawled on a note next to a small bowl-shaped piece of clay decorated with a green ribbon. A boy named Juan dedicated a kneeling figure next to a grave “To my uncle’s friend’s son who died from chickenpox.”

Pablo Baez, 11, of Highland Park produced a small head with spike-like hair as his offering.

“This is for my best friend’s brother. He was a skinhead with spiked hair. He got killed two years ago in a gang fight,” Pablo explained. “I was sad. But it was his fault. He decided to join a gang.”

The children carried their offerings and handmade tissue-paper banners as they paraded through the museum while their parents looked on.

The significance of the event may have been lost on some.

Faye Fagernes, 7, of Azusa made a clay bowl of soup containing clay carrots, onions and beans as her offering. “It’s not for anybody. It’s for me. I like soup,” she explained.

Five-year-old Ahngel Harris of Compton took the skeletons in stride. “They’re not scary,” she declared. “They’re just statues of space aliens.”

Nine-year-old Ruben Rodriquez of El Monte suggested that the here-and-now of Halloween beats the hereafter of Dia de los Muertos .

“You get to go trick-or-treating and eat candy on Halloween,” Ruben said. “I’m going to dress up as a pirate.”