Thomas and Erika Orozco of Canyon Country were waiting for their two sons to come out of what was called the skeleton run. They were spending Saturday afternoon at the Canyon Country Community Center for the city of Santa Clarita’s Día de Muertos event.
The family usually goes to the Día de los Muertos celebration at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. They were thrilled to be able to take in a holiday they honor in their hometown.
“This is a great event for the community,” Thomas said. “It’s fun, it’s interactive, it’s multicultural. And then you’ve got the mariachi.”
Erika added that the family had attended the second annual celebration last year and had a good time. When she saw this year’s event announced in the paper, the family jumped at the chance to go again.
The Orozco kids’ screams coming from the indoor basketball courts seemed to indicate that they were enjoying the skeleton run. Skeletons were chasing them through an obstacle course, trying to pull flags from the flag-football belts they wore. The kids and their parents had previously checked out the haunted house down the hall. Asked if it was scary, Erika said there were some surprises.
Día de los Muertos, which is Spanish for the Day of the Dead, is a holiday tradition that people of Mexican heritage celebrate on Nov. 1 and 2. Family and friends gather to remember and pay their respects to loved ones who have died. They often do so by building home altars, or ofrendas (offerings), to deceased loved ones with pictures of them, gifts to them and their favorite foods and beverages.
A common symbol of the holiday is the skull, or calavera, which was on full display at the event on Saturday with skull decorations and artwork, and with people in skull makeup. The event also offered Día de Muertos-themed games for kids like bowling, skee-ball and a ring toss.
According to Daniel Talamantes, recreation and community services coordinator for the city, the Día de Muertos event was intended to be both fun and educational.
“We’ve really done our research,” he said. “We’ve looked into the importance of every symbol, from the marigolds to the monarch butterfly.”
The marigolds, for example, are significant because of their strong scent, which is thought to lead spirits back to their families during the holiday. Outside behind the community center, guests could wander through a field of marigolds. Many people posed for pictures out there among the orange daisies. Some people made their own marigolds at a nearby crafts table.
“To celebrate a cultural event such as Día de los Muertos is really important to a lot of people,” Talamantes said. “We want to make sure that we’re treating this beautiful culture — this beautiful holiday — with the respect it deserves.”
Part of recognizing the culture was a slideshow presentation that played in the lobby of the community center. Both in English and in Spanish, the slides shared details about the holiday and the cultural significance of it.
And then there were the dances, ballet folklórico. Octavio Barba is a dance trainer for the city, and he worked with many young students to perform the traditional cultural dances on Saturday afternoon.
“It’s about the storytelling,” he said. “We’re bringing the community together through the stories. It educates the community about our traditions and our culture. It connects all of us.”
Genevieve Garrido was one of the dancers who took part in the presentation. She said she also did the event last year. According to her dad, John Garrido, his daughter and the others did great.
“The beauty about Santa Clarita is that they have many different programs that bring people together,” he said after the performance. “They celebrate many cultures. And that’s a beautiful way to bring people together.”
Toward the end of the Día de Muertos celebration, guests participated in a La Catrina, or dapper skull, parade around the community center park with the mariachi band. According to Gabriela Martinez, a communications specialist for the city of Santa Clarita, that kind of parade is also traditional.
“In Mexico,” she said, “they always do this, where you walk with the mariachi, or la banda — the live band — and you’re celebrating life.”
Martinez added that she’s proud to be a part of a city that reaches out to and recognizes all of its citizens and their cultures.
“We have this celebration because almost 40% of our population is Hispanic,” she said. “Being able to cater to this community is so beautiful. And now we have a Spanish page on social media. We have our Ciudad de Santa Clarita social media pages on Instagram and Facebook. I feel like it’s a beautiful moment that people are now finding out about what’s going on in our community in their language — in Spanish.”
The event on Saturday also included trick-or-treating, Día de Muertos arts and crafts, and caricature artists. Guests enjoyed the goings-on right up until about 4:45 p.m. or so, just before Game 2 of the World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers.