“Isn’t Day of the Dead the same as Halloween? I mean you guys paint skulls on your faces right?”

I have heard these two questions many times, and I can see why people might associate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) with Halloween and vice versa. While these two holidays almost overlap in date, it is important to understand that they are different in many ways. While the tradition of Halloween is to wear costumes and go around the neighborhood trick-or-treating, Dia de los Muertos is a day to honor those deceased loved ones and to also share the things they once loved.

It doesn’t bother me if people don’t know the difference between Dia de los Muertos and Halloween. What does bother me is when people think it’s acceptable to use part of my culture to give “swag” to clothing apparel that isn’t even used to promote my heritage. To make things even worse, people here at Iowa State used part of my culture to promote their “homecoming spirit,” which has no ties to Dia de los Muertos.

Not everyone is aware about the incident that occurred with three ISU greek chapters that sold shirts with the calavera (sugar skull) on it. The calavera isn’t just a skull. For many of us, these wonderful pieces of art have an emotional attachment that can’t simply be put into words.

For this reason, students organizations host events to inform people about what cultural appropriation is and how to genuinely appreciate cultures. The greek organizations involved in this incident were invited to attend an event hosted by the Mexican-American Young Achievers Society (MAYAS) that would help them understand the difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. Despite the cold and gloomy weather that was present that day, the MAYAS community and other fellow allies gathered together at the free-speech zone to distribute flyers that talked about this issue. These student organizations that were invited did not attempt to learn about us, Latinos, or even show up to the event to educate themselves and their people about sensitive issues.

To those organizations that don’t understand the significance behind the calavera, let me give you a brief explanation.

Dia de los Muertos is celebrated on Nov. 1 and 2. This holiday has roots from the Catholic All Souls’ day and also roots from Aztec and other indigenous beliefs. While Dia de los Muertos is mostly celebrated in Mexico, other Latin countries and some parts of the United States have adopted this culture as well.

Preparation for this Holiday begins a couple of days before the actual event. During that time, families decorate altars as a form of guiding the soul of the deceased back to their home. Nov. 1 is the day used to celebrate those children that have passed away. During this day, altars are typically decorated with candy and toys the child used to love playing with. On Nov. 2, the souls of the adults are believed to come out and accompany their families. Adult altars will typically have food the deceased enjoyed and a nice cold beer.

While altars for children and adults vary with decorations, there are a couple of things that they all have in common. Altars are decorated with vibrant colors, marigolds, a glass of water, candles, salt and calaveras. Calaveras are decorated with bright colors and the name of the deceased person the sugar skull is made for will oftentimes be written across the forehead.

One key thing to remember about the sugar skulls, about our sugar skulls, is that it’s all about celebrating the life of a loved one. Our sugar skulls are not used to be a trendy icon, much less to celebrate homecoming.