Día De Los Muertos altar: Significance behind key component explained

EAST LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Día de Los Muertos, Day of Dead, is just around the corner and many are gathering items to make an altar.

An altar, or ofrenda (offering), is a key component for this celebration honoring loved ones who have passed away.

Among those items being gathered are cempasuchil, marigolds, to adorn an altar.

At Tonalli Studio, in East Los Angeles, people have been gathering for the past weeks to make hundreds of cempasuchil flowers made out of tissue paper.

Leading the group is Ofelia Esparza, a Chicana altarist and East L.A. native, who has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) as a 2018 National Heritage Fellow.

Esparza explains the significance behind this key item in an altar.

¿Quieres leer este artículo en español? Haz clic aquí