Flowers, candles, paper cut outs, bread and fruit — the Day of the Dead altars at the Dennos Museum are at once festive and mournful, light and serious.
Created by school, church and community groups, the altars honor the Mexican Dia de los Muertes with a week-long celebration that also includes traditional Mexican music by Los Utrera. The Son Jarocho band from the Veracruz region of Mexico will give a public concert Saturday night and also perform for more than 1,900 elementary school students during the week.
The Dia de los Muertes altars will be displayed through Monday, November 5, at the Dennos Museum during regular museum hours. Visitors may also leave a memento for a loved one at a community altar while another altar describes Day of the Dead observances around the world.
Celebrating life and the continuation of life after death, the Day of the Dead is a traditional Mexican holiday that combines both European Christian and indigenous Mayan symbolism.
"It builds bridges,” said Diana Bolander, curator of education and interpretation for the museum.
"Some are serious, some are funny,” added Bolander of the range of emotions included in the altars.
Bolander put out a call for groups late last summer and 15 signed up to create the displays, which were set up Monday. Participants included Traverse City High School, Central High School, Skywoods Homeschool, the Osterlin Library, area artists, Little Artshram, TCAPS Montessori and the Unitarian Universalist congregation.
Thirteen students from Kingsley High School's Spanish 3 class, taught by Maria Suomi, assembled their altar Monday afternoon. Putting up the components they created at school, their display honored the life of Amber Clairmont's mother, Lori, who died in August.
Amber, a senior at the school, was touched by her classmates' caring when they asked her permission to focus the altar on her mother. The altar exhibited many personal touches central to Lori's life, including a stethoscope because she was a nurse, needle, thread and a blanket that the avid sewer made, a bottle of Coke and lighthouses.
"I think she probably would have liked to see this, it was nice to see everyone working so hard to do this,” said Amber.
The Kingsley students also included traditional elements of the Mexico festivities, such as candles, flowers, paper cutouts and bread. They also created a miniature sand painting in honor of the large ones — often measuring five feet by five feet — that often are made and then destroyed as part of the Dia de los Muertes celebrations. They made the cross and surrounding mosaic using a combination of sawdust, tempura paint, glue and some sand.
"Actually, they do it on the ground and they'd walk through them and destroy it,” said Erica Hayes, a student in the class.
Four student members of Northwestern Michigan College's Modern Dance Ensemble created an altar for the display. Instructor Dorothy Eisenstein jumped at the opportunity to join in when she first heard about it, she noted as the group put the finishing touches on their display Monday afternoon.
The theme of their altar was the four elements, wind, fire, earth and water, with each student contributing items to illustrate their element.
"I brought bread and a frosted cake to show that when you fire yeast and flour it makes sustenance,” said Beverly Cady, a member of the ensemble.
Eisenstein contributed a display on dancer Jose Limon, whose Mexican-American heritage was an essential part of his pioneering work in modern dance and choreography.
"When I got the notice I immediately thought of Jose Limon cause he was part of the curriculum,” said Eisenstein, who studied with members of his company when she was a student.