Parishioners at St. Procopius Parish take celebrating Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, seriously.
A week before the solemnity, parishioners start stringing garland with orange tissue paper pompons in the small courtyard next to the parish on 18th Street in Pilsen. They decorate the posts outside the church with the same pompons and string garland along the side of the church on Allport Street.
The orange paper pompons symbolize “cempasúchiles,” also known as Mexican marigolds, that are an important part in the traditional celebration.
Closer to the day, ofrendas, or altars, go up in the courtyard and outside in a park where the main festivities take place on Nov. 1-2. Come Nov. 1, families turn out and decorate ofrendas for loved ones who have died and they set up spaces to spend time together.
There is even a small garden space behind the church reserved for ofrendas for pets who have died.
St. Procopius is one of dozens of archdiocesan parishes with large Latin American populations that celebrate Día de los Muertos.
“The altar is an enculturation of the Aztec beliefs,” explained Father Juan Carlos Vargas, associate pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, 3935 N. Melvina Ave. “The first Catholic educators used that to teach the communities about heaven and how we are all trying to achieve sainthood and how our loved ones have this eternal life.”
Traditionally, the altars have steps symbolizing the journey to heaven, he said. On the bottom step, families place earthly things that their loved one enjoyed, such as a particular food or drink or a game.
On the next step, they typically place the photos of those who have died.
“They will use different symbols to signify the path that they’re trying to achieve to sainthood,” Vargas said. “So, they’ll have salt because it represents purification. It has water for the baptismal waters. All of the orange flowers represent the light that is leading them to there. The last step will have a cross.”
Sometimes families include images of saints who are interceding for their loved ones.
“It’s a tool to teach people on how this transition occurs and how we should continue to pray for our loved ones,” Vargas said of ofrendas. “There’s also the cultural part. It is the traditions.”
In Mexico, people traditionally visit the graves of their loved ones on Nov. 1 or 2 and have a meal there and maybe play live music, he said.
“The Aztecs, what they believed, was that their people who had passed away would come back these days to be with their loved ones on this earth,” Vargas said.
Because many people can’t go home to Mexico or another Latin American country to spend time at their loved one’s grave, they honor the dead here with ofrendas.
“It’s celebrating life,” Vargas said. “At the end of the day, you’re celebrating loved ones who used to be here. There’s a beauty to the physical concreteness of just doing this. To remember their loved ones and praying for them and the sharing of stories. It enhances our spiritual life because if we look deeper into what everything means on the altar, it all has a meaning, that now, thanks to enculturation, has shaped into being an example of what our faith can lead us to.”
It is also a time to grieve and share memories with loved ones who remain.
“We’re all on this journey together and we all cope differently,” he said. “This is a way where you can cope with the loss of your loved one. If done properly, I think it can exalt the prayers for it to be more of a healing process.”
That was the case for St. Procopius parishioner
Marietta Torres, who lost her husband last year.
Her husband was one of the deceased parishioners who the parish held up in a special way last year.
“To me this is just a special day to bring the community together,” Torres said. “I think today is important, because so many families are being torn up by ICE. People asked us if we were going to do this and I said, ‘Absolutely.’ Families have to remember their loved ones are here no matter how far away we are.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s presence in Chicago colored this year’s celebration, said Araceli Frausto, lead volunteer.
Some of the scheduled ethnic dancers canceled because of fear of ICE, along with some of the vendors. The parish had only one entrance to the park where the ofrendas were on display so parishioners could see who was coming in and out of the area.
But people still wanted to celebrate the day, Frausto said.
Fifty parishioners reserved altars for the two-day celebration, which included a public recitation of the rosary and blessings.
“It’s very, very family oriented,” Frausto said. “It’s not a big party or anything. It’s talking about the people, remembering who they are. Keeping them alive that way with their memory.”
Some people set up altars every year.
“We just try to give them a couple hours of good memories, and fun, good food and thanking God,” she said. “Everything that’s going on in the world today, we all just need a little peace, a little love and need to be friendlier to each other and give a smile.”
Teresa Chiquito, the parish operations director, volunteered as a cashier at the food stalls. This year, she said, Día de los Muertos means a lot to those who could not travel back to Mexico to say goodbye to their loved ones.
“This is a chance for them to memorialize them,” she said.
It is also a time to pass the tradition on to the next generation, she said.
“My kids never experienced anything like this,” Chiquito said. “For me, it’s a way for them to know my culture, to know grandma’s culture. It’s a way for them to know their ancestors a little more.”
While the day is sad because we grieve the loss of our loved ones, it is also hopeful, she said.
“We just have to remember that our loved ones are not going to be forgotten,” Chiquito said. “They’re going to be always in our hearts. This a very good way to remember that.”