Padre Nuestro que estás en los cielos,

Santificado sea tu nombre …

Before kneeling and reciting the prayer “Our Father” in Spanish, Alicia Re Cruz asked attendees to provide names of the dead or those they wished to pay special tribute to during a Día de los Muertos celebration Monday at the University of North Texas.

DRC/Barron Ludlum

Alicia Re Cruz explains Day of the Dead celebrations in Yucatan, Mexico, on Monday at the University of North Texas.

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Re Cruz, chairwoman of the UNT anthropology department, explained that the Day of the Dead, often celebrated in November across Latin America and especially in Mexico, represents the continuation of life, not the end.

“The general idea is to place honor and homage to those who have left and those we have recognized as part of our lives,” said Re Cruz, who wore a terno, a dress embroidered with flowers, similar to those worn by the Yucatec Mayas — a community she lived among years ago.

“In our culture, we think about time in a linear way … that tells us that past is past, we are in the present and we are going toward the future,” she said. “In Mesoamerica, the idea of time is cyclical — past is as present as we are.”

To honor the dead, the living put together altars filled with the favorite foods and drinks of the deceased, candles, photographs, flowers and pan de muerto (bread of the dead) and other items between Oct. 31 and Nov. 2. Día de los Muertos festivities officially take place Nov. 1, around the time of the Catholic holiday All Souls’ Day, on Nov. 2.

According to sources, the day’s origins are unknown, but historians believe that more than 500 years ago, the Aztecs dedicated a festival to the Lady of the Dead. That festival, now a combination of Catholic theology and Aztec rituals, became el Día de los Muertos.

For the Yucatec Mayas, Re Cruz said, everything the altar holds has special significance, including the altar’s position — it must face north.

“Most of the altars or altars are rectangular with four corners, since four is very important symbolism in Mesoamerica,” she said. The altars are dedicated to children on the first day and adults on the second, she added.

“For them, the cosmos is divided in four — north, south, east, west — in the same way we are divided in four parts. … We have two upper quarters, two lower quarters and a center,” Re Cruz said. “For Mesoamerican people, especially for the Maya, the center is important because it is what give us order and balance. Most of the altars have crosses at the center to give them balance.”

Juana Perez, a UNT student, said she recalled weeklong celebrations in her hometown ofSan Luis Potosí, Mexico, instead of a day or two.

“The celebrations are elaborate; our cemeteries are decorated with flowers, food,” Perez said. “The traditions are significant because we celebrate their souls and keep them close to our hearts; today we welcome them to our homes.”

In other countries such as Argentina, the celebrations are nonexistent, said Jennifer Rogla, a new anthropology professor at UNT.

“I lived in Buenos Aires, and they don’t do anything like this,” Rogla said.

While some use the day to commemorate life and death, others pray for certain actions to end, said Jannell Robles De León, a senior at UNT.

Robles attended her first Day of the Dead celebration at UNT. She wanted to honor those lives lost in extreme circumstances — people who died crossing the border from Mexico to the U.S., and the violent deaths of many women in Ciudad Juarez that have taken place since 2003.

Perez said the day can serve as a time of not only remembrance, but action.

The celebration ended with chocolate and bread of the dead, and Re Cruz — with her husband, José Calderon; Perez, Robles and history professor Roberto Calderon — headed to the university’s Multicultural Affairs office for its own celebration an hour later.

Staff, faculty members and more than 30 students heard Re Cruz discuss the significance of El Día de los Muertos. The altar there, a bit different from the one of at the anthropology department, held more photos of loved ones brought by students.

Lori Gore, a UNT junior, brought a photo of her grandmother Freeda Wood.

“I was really young when she passed,” Gore said, “and I wanted to honor her.”

Re Cruz said she held her first Day of the Dead gathering at UNT with her husband in 1993.

“We had the first one at the Union, and some people did not like the idea of a ritual in a public place,” she said. “So we relocated the building of the altar to the anthropology department.”

This year, Re Cruz held another celebration outside of her department, at the request of the Multicultural Affairs office. Next year, Re Cruz said, she would like to see altars around campus to learn what different departments would place at their tables because “nature, cosmos and human beings are all integrated and connected.”

KARINA RAMÍREZ can be reached at 940-566-6878. Her e-mail address is kramirez@dentonrc.com .