Celebrate Day of Dead at center

Making traditional paper flowers, decorating sugar skulls, watching Aztec dance ceremonies — the Utah Cultural Celebration Center in West Valley today is a place to practice tradition or check out your neighbor's culture.

The Center's Day of the Dead celebration, common in Mexico, culminates today in festivities planned from 6 to 9 p.m. at 1355 W. 3100 South. A traditional altar, which family members create in homes to honor their deceased loved ones with their favorite foods, flowers, or other symbolic items, has been on public display all week. Some 280 schoolchildren also came to the center to learn about the tradition, rooted in Aztec culture.

"It's not Halloween ... it relates more to our Memorial Day in recognizing the dead and cleaning graves and getting together and sharing stories and anecdotes about people who have passed," said Michael Christensen, West Valley City folklorist producing events at the center that focus on traditional and ethnic artists.

The Pastoral Center, adjacent to the Cathedral of the Madeleine in downtown Salt Lake City, in the past has had a traditional Day of the Dead altar, said Maria-Cruz Gray, director of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City's Hispanic ministry office. There is no altar there this year, as Gray and her husband, who is a deacon, were scheduled to visit rural churches.

"The Mexican people see life and death in a different way ... that this is only a path to a better life," Gray said. "It's important to preserve that part of the culture."

But most local Catholic parishes throughout November will remember those who have died, sometimes with a picture display or names written in a book it's a practice rooted in monastic life, where a list of those who died in the community were kept, and their names read at morning prayer, for instance.

"It is a way to remember those who have gone before us in faith," said Timothy Johnston, Diocesan director of liturgy "and ... inspired us in our own faith journey."