Post updated at 5:48 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 29:
The Lawrence community is invited to participate in a Día de los Muertos altar competition and celebration to honor lost loved ones — human and animal companions alike.
Rooted in Mexican culture, Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a holiday in which people commune with their deceased loved ones and honor their memories with celebrations.
Families and communities set up ofrendas, or altars, with personal items to welcome those who have passed on.
This year, Somos Lawrence families and Lawrence Percolator are hosting the annual local event on Saturday, Nov. 1, to recognize the holiday.
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“Historically, the experiences of loss speak through tangible expressions of rituals honoring the dead,” the event page reads. “In Mexico, these simultaneously happy and sad celebrations honoring our loved ones begin on Oct. 26, and end on All Souls’ Day on November 2nd.”
People can sign up to enter an altar-decorating contest with first-, second- and third-place monetary prizes. The judges include Juan Hernández Rodríguez, who is a maestro cartonero, or paper handcraft artist, from the central Mexican state of Guanajuato; Tonatiuh Hernández Pacheco, an artist and designer also from Guanajuato; and Ramón Valdez, a visual artist from Lawrence.
Ofrenda setup runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday at John Taylor Park at 200 N. Seventh St. The community is encouraged to drop off flowers, notes, art, photos or other mementos of human and non-human loved ones throughout the day
Celebrations officially run from 6 to 9 p.m, and guests can enjoy hot chocolate, tamales, and pan de muerto, or Mexican sweet bread.
The focus of this year’s offering is on our animal companions.
“Humans are part of a continuity with all living things,” the event page reads. “… Yet, the human/non-human continuum is easy to forget. For example, hateful language used to demonize particular groups of people often turn to animal terms. Conversely, multi-million dollar industries have commodified pet welfare and anthropomorphized our non-human companions in ways that often hurt them, and that could also contribute to desensitizing populations to human suffering.”
Organizers recommend that folks not put valuable items on ofrendas as they cannot ensure the return of all items.
A few community workshops have taken place, led by Hernández Rodríguez and Hernández Pacheco, where guests have worked on building a snake and hummingbird using bamboo and paste material. Folks are also using this time to create papel picado and paper flower decorations for Saturday.
Two more workshops are coming up to finish painting these non-human creations from 4 to 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday at Danielsan Electric, 900 New Jersey St., Suite A.
Find out more about the ofrenda competition here.
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Note: An address in this post has been corrected.
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Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
Kaydi Rudisell
