The Latin American Student Organization will be celebrating the dead and invite the Eastern community to celebrate with them.

LASO will be having Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, on Wednesday.

Priscilla Gonzalez, the secretary for LASO, said the Day of the Dead is a way of remembering loved ones who have passed away and letting their spirit know that they are missed and remembered.

Dia de los Muertos is a celebration on Nov. 1 and 2.

Gonzalez said LASO’s goal is to spread the Latin American culture around Eastern’s campus and the surrounding communities.

She said by having events like Dia de los Muertos, they are accomplishing this.

“They will learn about the event, not just what they think they know about it, but they will be able to experience it,” Gonzalez said.

Dia de los Muertos has been celebrated in Latin American countries for thousands of years.

She said Latin Americans celebrate the Day of the Dead by visiting the graves and cleaning them and decorating them with flowers.

They also make an altar with a picture of their loved ones at the cemetery.

Also on the altar, people place objects such as toys, the person’s favorite foods or music and anything else that describes them.

Children make and eat skeleton candy and skeleton toys.

People also make Pan de Muertos, or Day of the Dead bread.

The bread is soft and sweet and is shaped in different ways, such as skulls, human heads, angels and other forms. This bread is often eaten on Nov. 2 at the grave site or the altar of their loved one.

Gonzalez said another tradition is making items that represent the dead, but in a colorful way that makes them lively.

“They sell skeleton, and skeleton toys, anything that signifies the dead, but it’s not black and white; they have bright colors to signify that it is a lively event,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said Dia de los Muertos is not a day similar to Halloween and is not meant to be scary.

She said people do not dress up in scary costumes and fool around.

“It’s a family event, and Halloween is suppose to be family, but it is a day that you are respecting and a day to remember that person who has passed away,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said anyone who would like to participate in the Day of the Dead festivities that LASO is sponsoring is invited to come to its meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Martinsville Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union and encouraged to bring a picture to make an alter.

“It’s a special day for the dead,” Gonzalez said. “You just want to tell you that you haven’t forgotten them and that you love them and you hope they are safe and happy.”

Samantha McDaniel can

be reached at 581-2812

or slmcdaniel@eiu.edu.