Living It Up for Day of the Dead

Every year for the last five years, Patricia Mendez and her family have set up an altar to deceased loved ones at the annual Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Mass at the Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Orange.

Altars are made with offerings to the dead, who are believed to return to Earth during the festival to eat, drink and visit the living. On Saturday, Mendez, 33, decorated her altar with sugar-sprinkled bread, a sweet potato called camote and different kinds of tamales that are traditionally offered during the celebration.

The altar was one of about 20 decorated with orange flowers, traditional food and calaveras (plastic skulls) at the Saturday Mass. Several hundred people attended the service, given by Bishop Jaime Soto of the Diocese of Orange.

“For many people, the death of a loved one is a difficult step,” Soto preached in Spanish. The celebration helps people to know that it “is not a death without meaning,” he said.

The Day of the Dead, which combines Catholic ritual with an indigenous Mexican festival honoring the dead, is usually celebrated on the first and second days in November. This year, because those dates are midweek, the Diocese of Orange decided the event should be held Saturday so more people could attend.

The festival is a time for celebrating the lives of departed relatives while mourning their deaths, participants said.

“I see Americans, and when somebody dies, they cry for a day and then they’re fine. I don’t understand how they do it,” Mendez said.

“We [Mexicans] cry about someone for 20 years. The difference between [the two cultures] is we don’t let people die. They’re always alive.”

Mendez also displayed tequila and tobacco on her altar in honor of her brother, who, she said, died 11 years ago in a motorcycle accident.

“I get drunk with my brother every year, because he was a drunk,” Mendez said. “So we smoke and we drink and we talk and then he goes back.”

At Saturday’s Mass, several hundred people took part in a procession through the cemetery, praying and singing.

The celebration began thousands of years ago in Mexico. For many living in the United States, the day is a reminder of home.

“Because the tradition is from Mexico, it’s a tradition we don’t want to lose,” said Santa Ana resident Flor Flores, 24.