Celebrating Dia de Los Muertos

Prayers on behalf of the dead are being offered by thousands of Dia de Los Muertos celebrants who see this Hispanic holiday as a way to remember their loved ones who have died.

In the South Bay, the largest Catholic festival honoring the deceased occurred Saturday, Oct. 29 at Calvary Catholic Cemetery in San Jose. Others will take place this coming weekend.

The festivities are officially celebrated Nov. 1-2, but some occurred last weekend, including one at National Hispanic University on Oct. 29.

Most cemeteries in nearby communities, however, where Hispanics have buried their ancestors, participate by allowing relatives and friends to decorate gravesites and honor their family history. Also, many local Catholic parishes will celebrate Mass on behalf of their muertos or deceased persons.

Oak Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Park, 300 Curtner Ave., in San Jose, will hold its annual Dia de los Muertos observance 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 6. Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. and the public will enjoy refreshments and entertainment.

Calvary Cemetery's festival was held in conjunction with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Silicon Valley. The second annual event drew more than 500 people who enjoyed performances by local entertainers, including the United Aztec Dancers, music by Victor Hugo Santos and storyteller Elizabeth Gomez.

There were also altar displays, art booths showcasing the work of artists such as Sonia Orban-Price and food vendors along the entryway of the cemetery.

Three beautiful senoritas from Abraham Lincoln High School's Xochitl Cultural dance group were on hand to perform with others many of their bailes in honor of their ancestors, many buried at the cemetery.

Among the business booths at the festival was that of Willow Glen Funeral Home. Manager Melissa Rosa said the holiday gives relatives a chance to remember their lost family members, eat their favorite foods and give thanks.

"That's who we came from and we became who we are because of them," Rosa said. "They are our legacy and our tradition."

For Rosa, just like for many of the others attending, the cemetery is sacred ground since many of her progeny is buried there.

Patrick Tiopan was supporting wife Tina and sister-in-law Theresa Kattengell, who was selling masks, jewelry and calaveras or skulls.

Mary Williams, accompanied by husband Erroll Williams, had visited the graves of brother George Valerio, sister Bertha Valerio and father Antonio Valerio. They then proceeded to enjoy some food and purchase a skull for their daughter who's a devout observer of Dia de Los Muertos, in English translated to Day of the Dead.

Educated at St. John Vianney School and Notre Dame High School, Williams' daughter made her first skull while in elementary school and would get the family excited about the holiday buying the traditional pan de dulce or sweet bread that's customarily eaten during the celebration.

Quite moving during the festival was the rows and rows of tombs full of relatives and friends who gathered under canopies to enjoy food, decorate headstones and gravesites and pray for their muertos.

A group of women, lead by Ofelia Betancourt, knelt near the decorated grave of the late Servando Betancourt, her husband, who died July 31 of cancer.

Together, with hands clasped together by their chests, they repeated in Spanish many Hail Mary’s and the Lord's Prayer, tears falling down Ofelia's face at the realization that her husband is gone.

But just for "un tiempo," she said, meaning for a short while, her Catholic faith sustaining her in the belief of the afterlife and in the power of intercessory prayers to the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ.

Related Topics: Calaveras, Calvary Cemetery, Day Of The Dead, Dia De Los Muertos, Elizabeth Gomez, Hail Mary, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Servando Betancourt, The Lord's Prayer, and United Aztec Dancers