I heard through the grapevine that the Day of the Dead storytime at Northside was a success, so I reached out to the librarian who ran it. Her story of the day is beautiful.
The Friday we held the Day of the Dead Storytime, I had a patron later that afternoon who said she really appreciated the ofrenda (altar).
She said she puts one up at home every year and was glad to see this beautiful tradition being incorporated to the community. She also said her family loved the stories we read. That same day, I had a lot of questions about the significance of my calaverita (sugar skull) make-up. As for the ofrenda itself, we had several patrons at the desk asking about its purpose and many families took pictures of or in front of it.
I even received a few phone inquiries about the holiday itself.
We also got some adorable attendees at our storytime, one of them was even dressed as a skull for the event. After the storytime, kids were able to decorate their own sugar skulls.
Parents were impressed that we were able to do the storytime in English and Spanish simultaneously, and asked that we do bilingual storytimes more often. Even our non Spanish-speaking parents loved learning new Spanish words!
The ofrenda and the storytime were very appreciated by the community, and Northside staff was so happy to see that many people were interested to learn more. This is a beautiful holiday celebrated in my native country, and a tradition that I hold very close to my heart. To have been able to share it with others was a beautiful experience.
The Foundation & Friends is proud to support all the cultures in our community!