Culture and our Christian beliefs... and an easy way to teach our kids about both
- Renee Diaz
- Sep 20, 2019
- 3 min read
Disclaimer: I have a partnership with Roylco and have received the items listed in this post at a discount or free in exchange for my honest and unbiased experience, feedback or review.
There are also some links listed to their site but I make no money off those links. That is primarily for your perusal.
I am a Chicana. I don't know much Spanish but I understand some. I was raised in Chicago and still reside here. My husband was born in Mexico but has lived here almost all of his life. He has a very deep relationship to his culture but for some reason, neither of us know anything about Dia De Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. In an effort to learn more about my culture I started to do some research about where it originates and aside from cool sugar skulls, how I can teach our children about our our heritage without moving into pure sacrilege.
I have to make it very simple for little kids to understand. My plan is to host a small party which focuses on the culture and keeps our Christian values aligned. I am thinking a potluck with friends and family with a prayer with some time to decorate sugar skulls and tell stories. I don't know if it's okay for me to nix the part about the Ofrenda (Alter) with food placed with pictures of loved ones with the expectation of feeding their souls when they visit. However, I do like the idea of a day where we can celebrate loved ones we miss with food that reminds us of them. For me, almost all personal memories of my stepdad, whom passed earlier this year, tie to Jewel-Osco Fried chicken and Hellman's Mayonnaise. He would always order way too much food for every holiday or event and would also slather mayo on almost all food he ate. I was the lucky recipient of many a leftover fried chicken pieces and 9 years ago realized that I could smell the chicken so strongly that it prompted me to purchase a pregnancy test at 1 am after we left my grandmas that night. That insignificant scent of chicken reminds me of the first step into a new life with kids.
For the party I will be using the Color Diffusing Skulls provided by Roylco a little over a month ago. I will also be using the Bandera Flags for any family that would like to color some and take them home to decorate their homes during October and November.
My eldest boy and I had a chance to sit and play with our cool #Roylco art supplies and we loved it. He kept talking about how it looked like tie dye and as a little science boy, just really sat in awe of the color diffusing paper as each drop of paint bled together with other colors. The flags are intricate and require more work than I thought but they look so nice when they are colored and dried. Adult assistance is helpful for ages 7 and younger or if you're me and want perfection, you'll just do them all yourself!
I am not too big on skulls but my son really liked the skull diffusing paper cutouts. I think these are used to encourage skull and anatomy talk in a classroom setting but we'll be using them for decorations and learning more about Dia de Los Muertos. Even without that recognizable sugar skull outline, they are still really cool. I'll be adding the outline after our set dries but sometime in October before Dia de Los Muertos.
The key things I learned about Day of the Dead that I will be sharing with the kids are:
Food, memories and quality time together is all that matters. I also want to harp of the fact that just because we live here in Chicago with no prior knowledge of what parts of our culture mean, doesn't mean we have to avoid, hide or just ignore it. We have every opportunity to learn where we are and take in some of that rich heritage of ours without feeling inadequate. We also have the right to take parts and pieces we like to make them work for our family with our Christian foundation. We probably won't call it a day of the dead party but we might call it something like A day to remember party.
Renee
Tags #dayofthedead #Honestandunbiasedblog #diadelosmuertos #Christian #Chicago #Chicana #Latinx #Mexican #Hispanic #Culture #Heritage #Sugarskull #Review #DIY #Partyideas
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