When Las Naranjas decided to host an event to celebrate Día de los Muertos, club members said that they wanted to include more aspects from Mexican culture, instead of just the holiday, to cater to SU’s student population.

Día de los Muertos is a traditional Mexican holiday celebrated from Oct. 31 through Nov. 2, where families and friends honor their ancestors who have passed and celebrate their life. On Thursday, Las Naranjas, a Spanish language and culture club at Syracuse University, will be hosting a Día de los Muertos celebration from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Huntington Beard Crouse Hall’s atrium.

Alexandra Ramos, the educational chair of Las Naranjas, said that they’re trying to end the misconceptions surrounding the celebration. She said that it’s not “Mexican Halloween.”

“It’s a celebration of the cycle of life,” Donolo said. “It’s not mourning death but rather celebrating it. It’s a very colorful thing with a bunch of music and sharing times with your friends and family and your ancestors who have passed away.”

Ramos said the organization’s celebration isn’t upscaled to the fullest extent, they will try to get as close as possible in creating an authentic experience.

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Sofia Donolo, the vice president of Las Naranjas said they decided to host the event on a weekday to be more accessible to students. Donolo worked closely with SU’s Spanish department to gather materials for the event.

The club will be having an ofrenda, a collection of objects and mementos that are displayed with a photo of a family member who has passed away. The celebration will also feature face painting, churros and candy.

Donolo said that they’re going to “deck out” the atrium. She said that the atrium will be covered in colors, calaveras and caracas, which are skulls and skeletons. Professors, SU abroad representatives and salsa dancers will also be in attendance, Donolo said.

Las Naranjas worked with the Spanish department to get the Día de los Muertos celebration up and running. With many club members of Las Naranjas taking part in Spanish classes at SU, they felt it was easy to ask their Spanish professors for help with the celebration, said Anna Sebree, the head event coordinator for the organization.

Sebree said that the department was “on board” from the beginning. She said anything that Las Naranjas needed for Dia de los Muertos, the Spanish department helped with.

The Spanish department helps promote Las Naranjas and some professors offer students extra credit if they go to their events, Sebree said. She said that many students get involved in the organization after attending events promoted by the department.

This is the first event Las Naranjas has put together this semester, but they have more planned for the future.

Sebree said that the club is hoping to have an event for the Latin Grammys in November and that they have a few other ideas for later in the semester. But for now, the organization is focused on Día de los Muertos.

The club did not get started on events until after Hispanic Heritage Month so they couldn’t take advantage of any events during that time, Sebree said. But she said that they felt like they were able to find an important date in Hispanic culture to kick off the club’s events at.

Donolo said that Las Naranjas is hoping that students come to see this celebration as it had not been a fixture on campus in prior years.

“What we wanted to do was give students a chance to be able to get a sense of what the holiday is,” said Donolo. “We notice that our school doesn’t really do anything to recognize it or celebrate it, so we wanted to raise awareness.”

Published on October 27, 2019 at 10:37 pm

Contact Mateo: mtestlin@syr.edu