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A lighter look at death  

Students tour cemetery for Day of the Dead

By Anna Sarkissian

If someone sent you a poem about the way you were going to die, most Canadians would call the police. Mexicans have a more light-hearted approach to death, as students learned during a trip to the cemetery for El Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead.

“People make rhymes with your name about your death. It’s something that we can laugh about. In other cultures, that would be considered an insult,” says film production graduate student Unai Miquelajáuregui, who led a small group of Concordians on a tour of Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery last Tuesday.

Walking among the tombstones, he described typical scenes in Mexican cemeteries during the annual celebration on Nov. 1 and 2: People would be eating, drinking, playing music. The atmosphere is festive.

“In our eyes, death is not a punishment. It will reunite you with people that you loved and lost, or with God. We have a different perspective,” he says.

Traditionally, families will create a path of orange marigolds from the grave back to their home, where they will place an offering of favourite snacks, tequila, toys, or skull candies to welcome the souls of the deceased.

At Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, it was easy to spot the Mexican graves because they were adorned with bright flowers, candles and sometimes rosaries.

Miquelajáuregui is one of a half -dozen members of the newly created Interfaith Ambassador Program at the Multi-faith Chaplaincy. Interfaith Educator Laura Gallo explains that the IAP is based on the concept that we live in a religiously diverse world and can work together based on these differences.

“We hope to reach out and build an interfaith community for those who are interested in learning about or exploring spirituality,” she says. Service to the community is an integral part of that and they frequently organize outings and fundraisers.

One of their long-term goals is to demystify religion and create a space for people to talk about their faiths without feeling stigmatized.