On the 2^nd of November 2023 us, 5emes, celebrated the Mexican holiday: Día de los Muertos. This event was held in the Salle Polyvalente from 12h00 – 14h00 and was organized by our Spanish and English teachers: Mme Butel, Mme Churin, Mme Becerra, Mme Grobler and Mme Silber. Along with Día de los Muertos, we also celebrated Halloween, which took place on the 31^st of October.

In English, Día de los Muertos translates to Day of the Dead. The purpose of this holiday is for Mexican families to invite their deceased family members to spend the day with them. It is a joyful day where they celebrate their ancestors and their lifetimes. Since specific attire is worn on this day we were asked to come dressed as Mexicans do as part of the celebration. Girls wore long black skirts, floral tops and had roses in their hair. Boys wore white pants, black tops and some of them wore sombreros. We all wore masks or skulls coloured in orange, purple etc. As for Halloween, some of us dressed up as ghosts or had scary masks. We were asked to bake a traditional food: pan de muertos (which translates to bread of the dead) and some of us in 5eme B and C had a tasting competition in Spanish class to see which one was the best. Towards the afternoon we met up in the Salle Polyvalente from 12h00 – 14h00. We ate some traditional food for lunch such as burritos, chips and guacamole, juice etc. Along with Halloween decorations such as banners and spider webs, we had altars and colourful papel picado along the ceilings. As for the activities, we decorated some calaveras which are little skulls made of sugar for the Día de los Muertos part. For the Halloween part we took Oreos and dipped them in chocolate and made them look like bats. At the end we danced to finish off the celebration.

I personally enjoyed this and found it fun, educational and tasty. I hope we do similar things through the year. Thank you to all the teachers for helping with this experience.

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By Angelina Mayengo 5C