While Día de los Muertos isn’t for another week, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in D.C. is inviting families to celebrate early on Saturday, with kid-friendly crafts and musical performances.
Kids aged 12 and younger can get their faces painted, as well as decorate paper decorative skulls, or calaveras, marigold flowers and lanterns. Visitors of all ages can go on an art scavenger hunt through the museum’s Many Wests exhibition.
There will also be live performances by Ballet Folklorico Mi Herencia Mexicana and Mariachi Aguila DC among others.
“It’s a celebration of folks who have died and honoring their memories in a really beautiful, but also happy way,” said Gloria Kenyon, head of public programs at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery.
The lively holiday, known in English as the Day of the Dead, is widely celebrated in Mexico and by people of Mexican heritage. Along with music and food, families create altars, or ofrendas, where they place pictures of loved ones who have passed, along with their favorite foods and sweets, lit candles and other decorations.
The event at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Kogod Courtyard goes from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28 and is free to attend.
