What is wrong with the Dixon Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Directors of the Silveyville Cemetery? As a Hispanic myself I’m appalled that a small group of wan·na·be wants to party at the Silveyville Cemetery to celebrate the “Dia De Los Muertos! Why they want to offend the 41% of Dixon’s Hispanic or Latino population?  Music, food, and vendors at the Silveyville Cemetery?? Give me a break.  Do they really understand what “Dia De Los Muertos” means and how it is celebrated by the Hispanics?

PLEASE CANCEL YOUR PARTY AT THE SILVEVILLE CEMETERY. Let each family celebrate individually their traditions and religious beliefs! Why don’t you party and ger drunk at the Dixon Plaza! Plenty of bars around.  

Cemeteries play a role in ensuring the orderly and respectful interment of the deceased individuals. I am sure there are many people of different religions buried at the Silveyville cemetery. Mary religions do not allow people walking on the graves. The wan·na·be of Dixon shall respect people’s traditions and religions.

Maybe is time to educate the ignorants of Dixon at least on the Dia de los Muerto celebration.

El Dia de los Muertos shouldn’t be confused with Halloween, since they are different holidays with different origins. However, both holidays share the idea that spirits return on a certain day once a year to mingle with the living. El Dia de los Muertos celebrations have been evolving, however, as Halloween has become more popular in Mexico, and children now also dress up in costumes and go trick-or-treating (pedir Muertos).

In many parts of Mexico, El Dia de los Muertos is celebrated with vibrant parades and colorful decorations, particularly in the southern destinations, including the states of Chiapas, Michoacan, and Oaxaca. Celebrations tend to be more on the solemn side in rural areas.

Favorite foods of the deceased are usually cooked as an offering. Colorful calacas and calaveras (skeletons and skulls), generally sculpted out of sugar, wood, or stone, show up everywhere in the form of candy, dolls, and statues. These items are often placed on homemade altars in the family homes dedicated to those who have passed on.

In Mexico, it’s also common to elaborately decorate the graves of loved ones and attend parties and vigils held in cemeteries that go on all night, complete with picnics and music. Some people even lay a path of flower petals from the cemetery back to their residences so that the spirits can find their way back home for the holiday.

The Day of the Dead (el Día de los Muertos), is a Mexican holiday where families welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives for a brief reunion that includes food, drink and celebration.

A blend of Mesoamerican ritual, European religion and Spanish culture, the holiday is celebrated each year from October 31-November 2. While October 31 is Halloween, November 2 is All Souls Day or the Day of the Dead. According to tradition, the gates of heaven are opened at midnight on October 31 and the spirits of children can rejoin their families for 24 hours. The spirits of adults can do the same on November 2.

The roots of the Day of the Dead, celebrated in contemporary Mexico and among those of Mexican heritage in the United States and around the world, go back some 3,000 years, to the rituals honoring the dead in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The Aztecs and other Nahua people living in what is now central Mexico held a cyclical view of the universe, and saw death as an integral, ever-present part of life.

Upon dying, a person was believed to travel to Chicunamictlán, the Land of the Dead. Only after getting through nine challenging levels, a journey of several years, could the person’s soul finally reach Mictlán, the final resting place. In Nahua rituals honoring the dead, traditionally held in August, family members provided food, water and tools to aid the deceased in this difficult journey. This inspired the contemporary Day of the Dead practice in which people leave food or other offerings on their loved ones’ graves or set them out on makeshift altars called ofrendas in their homes.