Day of the Dead returns to downtown DeKalb in November

DeKALB – There’s more to Day of the Dead than meets the eye, with the face paint, sugar skulls and folkloric dance.

In DeKalb, like in Mexico, Day of the Dead is reserved for celebrating the lives of ancestors.

Laura Anderson, the owner of Create Health Mobility Clinic, who is organizing the event, said she’s excited to plan Day of the Dead for the second year in a row.

“It is all a celebration,” Anderson said. “It is all to connect with our past, connect with our ancestors, to teach the new generation who they are, where they came from, [and] to never forget our past, our aunts, our uncles, our family members.”

The second annual Day of the Dead will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Nov. 2 at various locations in downtown DeKalb.

New to the event this time around, the Egyptian Theatre, 135 N. Second St., will host dance performance. Founders Memorial Library at Northern Illinois University will bring in spirit animals and the NIU Mariachi Banda Concert also will perform.

“You’re going to see a lot of the same, but a lot of different things happening,” Anderson said.

At the event, there will be a vendor food truck area set up for people to peruse.

A community ofrenda – an altar set up to honor departed loved ones – will be set up at El Jimador Mexican Grille, 260 E. Lincoln Highway, and the DeKalb Public Library, 309 Oak St.

Jubilee Artisans, 128 E. Lincoln Highway, will be hosting a Day of the Dead gallery for people to view.

WNIJ radio will set up shop remotely to invite the public to participate in an oral history.

Anderson said she was pleased with how the event turned out last year.

“It was really cool to see the different people that came from different areas,” Anderson said. “We had people from Chicago, Elgin, Aurora and just people from our community that talked about the importance of what it meant to them to celebrate this in DeKalb.”

Willrett Flower Company, 230 E. Lincoln Highway, Suite 150, and Create Health Mobility Clinic will invite the public to get creative by making flower crowns and tissue papers.

A ceremony and parade procession will kick off festivities at 1 p.m. on the front steps of the DeKalb library before making its way to the Egyptian Theatre, 135 N. Second St., for a moment of silence.

Day of the Dead is usually commemorated annually on Nov. 1 and Nov. 2, with the first day reserved for children who have died and the second day marked for the full celebration of Day of the Dead.

Anderson said Day of the Dead was not originally intended to be a religious holiday.

“It was always more of a tradition and later as Catholicism swept Mexico, it kind of started switching into a religious holiday,” Anderson said. “Now the cool thing about our generation, we can celebrate it either way.”

Anderson said she hopes people find value in the Day of the Dead event.

“I’m trying to provide a space for Mexican Americans to be proud of being Mexican American and understanding that we do have a contribution,” she said. “I’m also trying to pull in our migrant ancestors, my great aunts and uncles and re-excite them about where they came from and try and get as much tradition from them as well. It’s a lot but it’s a little bit of trying to get everybody together and create this teaching moment.”