Tradition honors loved ones
Campus Times
November 6, 1998
Catholic Campus Minister Elena Cardeña hosted the annual Day
of the Dead ceremony Monday, Nov. 2.
The service in the campus chapel was a combination of Christian and
indigenous Indian practices. Cardeña has hosted the ceremony for
the past four years. The ceremony is a way for those who are living to express
their love, admiration and respect to persons who meant something to them
and who are no longer living.
The event is a widely practiced ceremony in Mexico. Cardeña is
pleased with the ritual's growth in the United States. "It surprises
me how much it has grown in my life time. I think that it has grown because
people are looking for ways of coping with death in their own lives,"Cardeña
said.
The ritual has no specific format. Typically families decide how the
ceremony is going to proceed. There is no specific church ritual although
the church does allow the ceremony. It is believed that on the Day of the
Dead, God releases souls from purgatory to visit with their loved ones.
Typically, a favorite food of the departed is placed on a table with water,
for it is believed that the souls have traveled from a far away place to
be with their loved one and they may be hungry and thirsty when they arrive.
During Monday's ceremony not only were the food and water on the table
but persons who attended also brought pictures of those they were honoring.
People who attended each told a story of who they were remembering.
After they finished speaking, participants lit tea light candles in
memory of their loved ones.
Among those who attended was Maddy Quintana of Glendora, who remembered
her mother and father.
"My father only had a fourth grade education and he would always
help me with my homework. When I got to the fifth grade, he could no longer
help me because he did not know the material, so he said that we would both
learn together and he started studying with me," Quintana said. Quintana's
father inspired her to become a teacher.
Junior Roxanne Gomez (who is the niece of Quintana) attended the ceremony
as well.
Gomez said that she attended to, "honor people who have passed
on, family and friends and it is also part of my culture as a Latina."
Cardena told the story of a priest that become her friend and counseled
her during the time that she felt that she had been called to serve the
church not as a nun, but from the pulpit.
"I went to father Martin and told him that I felt that I had been
called to preach and he never once laughed at me or told me that it was
impossible because I was a woman," she said.
"Instead he asked me why I felt that I had been called to the ministry
and he and I then went into a 10-month period of spiritual direction."
Six persons attended the ceremony. Cardeña said that crowds have
varied in size over the years.
"Sometimes we have large crowds and sometimes the crowds are smaller.
Usually those who are supposed to be here attend," she said.
