In what has become a genuine tradition here at Muhlenberg, Spanish
students once again joined with faculty and the Chapel to remember
loved ones passed on and experience a celebration at once spiritual
and cultural. The festivities began the night before the
Day of the Dead at the home of Dr. Joan Marx. There students got
to see the very intimate home altar prepared in memory of Dr. Marx's
late father. As students and professors decorated skulls for the
community altar, they chatted and nibbled on delicious pan de muertos.
The next morning a dedicated crew met in the Chapel to create
what would be an enormous and very beautiful altar complete with
flowers, skulls, papel picado, and offerings to the dead. At the
Sunday service that followed the Día de los Muertos, the
sermon was by the pastor of Allentown's Spanish-language Lutheran
church, songs were performed by local Latino musicians, and readings
were done in Spanish by our own Jackie Gerard '04 and Diana Garretto
'04. Language, culture, beauty, and faith come together for a
few magical days around the first of November.
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