St. Rita Celebrates Day of the Dead

Our Spanish Club and classes celebrated the Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos), bringing together our students, faculty, and staff in remembering loved ones and heroes.

In the weeks leading up to Day of the Dead, our Spanish Club prepared our annual community altar, known as an ofrenda. Every year, students, faculty, and staff place photographs of deceased loved ones of our St. Rita Family that serve as a reminder of their lives and legacies. Our Ritamen added decorations to the altar such as monarch butterflies, which symbolize the spirits of deceased relatives returning to visit, as well as painted wooden sugar skulls, known as calaveras, which symbolize the sweetness of life. To conclude their hard work, the Spanish Club enjoyed Mexican hot chocolate and pan de muerto, the traditional bread baked during this holiday.

In Mr. Bogucki’s Spanish 1 classes, our Ritamen have been learning about Day of the Dead with a unique focus on honoring fallen heroes. His classes created altars in honor of fallen members of the Chicago Police Department and the Chicago Fire Department. Their altars were garnished with pictures and biographies of some fallen first responders, however, both displays serve as a tribute to all of Chicago’s first responders. Our Ritamen created papel picado (cut paper designs), decorated calaveras (sugar skulls), and made tissue paper flowers to adorn their altars.  

Through our Day of the Dead celebration, our Ritamen learned about Mexican culture and celebrated lives both personally and communally important to them.