Lessons in Life, Death : Tradition: Students prepare for San Fernando Middle School’s display commemorating the Day of the Dead, a festival celebrated in Mexico.

The visitor patiently explained that the teeth-baring paper skeletons can symbolize both life and death. But such details appeared lost to about a dozen students at San Fernando Middle School.

They colored the figures in the bright hues of the rainbow, eager to contribute their part to a growing display in the school library to commemorate the Day of the Dead, a centuries-old festival that is celebrated in Mexico on Nov. 1 and 2.

“I think it’s great doing this to learn a lesson about ancient stuff,” said 12-year-old James Trujillo.

The students worked on the skeletons, or calaveras , earlier this week under the watchful eye of Alfredo Calderon, a folk art consultant for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art who is himself an alumnus of San Fernando Middle School.

The tradition of constructing elaborate altars or displays in Mexico, which often include food offerings and depictions of calaveras , dates back nearly 5,000 years, Calderon said. The holiday honors the dead--who are believed to come from the afterlife to visit friends and relatives--and celebrates life.

Calderon has been building altars since he was in elementary school and this year is displaying his own work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History and the Plaza de la Raza in East Los Angeles.

He is supervising the work of the San Fernando students at the

behest of Principal Maria Reza, who invited him to share his knowledge with students and teachers at the school. He led a faculty workshop last week on ideas for projects on the Day of the Dead theme.

When the school’s display is complete, it will feature poetry written in English classes, ceramic skulls fashioned in art class and Mexican breads made by youthful cooks.

It is a work-in-progress, slowly taking shape as the various pieces are completed.

Calderon has already decorated the area near the display with colorful squares of papel picado , or paper cutouts, hanging from a string. The tissue paper cutouts were made by teachers and students.

“This isn’t an art function--it’s a school function,” said Louise Bache, who taught Calderon art at the school more than two decades ago and still teaches there.

As he monitored decoration of the display, Calderon said he especially wanted to awaken a “cultural curiosity” in the students, most of whom have little or no knowledge of the holiday. “The primary intent is to expose them to the idea of belonging to a tradition,” he said.

At least one student, though, got the holiday mixed up with another one that makes use of skeletons. “It’s fun and exciting because you get to go trick or treating,” said 12-year-old Yesenia Flores, a seventh-grader, as she put the finishing touches on her calavera .

Reza, the principal, said the display will be open to the public upon its completion, expected by today or the beginning of next week.

“It’s a refreshing opportunity to collectively remember our ancestors,” Calderon said of the display and the holiday. “It’s a celebration of the polarity we all have in common as a community: life and death.”