Día de los Muertos at the Sherman Heights Community Center has become one of the most anticipated Day of the Dead celebrations in San Diego. In 2024 the week-long event turned thirty years old.
The many traditional altars inside the community center, erected by local families and organizations, remember loved one who are deceased. All around the center a joyful festival is enjoyed by families who engage in activities that celebrate life, past and present.
Walking the short distance from downtown to Sherman Heights, I arrived at the event yesterday.
I was fortunate to join a group that was touring the Día de los Muertos altars (ofrendas in Spanish). Daniel was explaining to several people (including folks from Germany) how these altars originated in Pre-Columbian times and evolved to include Catholic elements when Spain entered the American continent. Most of the altars include symbols of the four elements defined in ancient times: earth, water, fire and air.
In Mexican ofrendas today, earth is still represented by marigolds and offerings of food, water by drink, fire by candles, and air by papel picado, which flutters in a breeze.
Daniel explained that because Day of the Dead has universal themes–family, human mortality, the circle of life and love–and because of commercialization and the influence of popular culture, the holiday is spreading worldwide. He noted that other cultures have inserted their own special symbolism into Day of the Dead celebrations.
I took photographs of the many altars. Most were extremely elaborate.
So many loved ones that have passed on–but who live still in memory…
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