STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Garden beds that had grown lettuce greens throughout summer turned into colorful beds for ofrendas Saturday as the Sun Valley Museum of Art and Hunger Coalition partnered to throw their annual Dia de los Muertos celebration.

Sixteen organizations and schools created altars and displays remembering relatives, friends and family pets who have passed and offering inspirational reminders to celebrate the life we have.

This is a celebration of life,” said Diana Sanchez Shumway, community engagement coordinator at SVMoA. “Death is not a taboo subject. It’s a time we remember loved ones by placing their favorite foods on the altar.”

Sanchez Shumway said she was inspired to have organizations build their altars in the greenhouse vegetable beds because they reminded her of a cemetery in Oaxaca, Mexico. She pushed the timing of the event back from midday to 4 to 7 p.m. so people could experience the reverence of light as the candles were lit.

“The Hunger Coalition even grew a box of marigolds for us,” she said. “She held out her hands which were stained with the orange color of marigolds, having pulled petals off plants to pave the way to the altars with petals.

“Marigolds symbolize life and they’re very fragrant,” she said.

The Hunger Coalition’s greenhouses provided the perfect hideaway for families on a rainy afternoon while nine inches of snow fell on Baldy and five at Galena Lodge. Adults and children sipped hot chocolate and nibbled on pan de Muerto sweet bread shaped and colored like pumpkins while they watched Son del Valle, a cumbia band, and Dirce Flores’ school-aged folk dancers show off their moves in one greenhouse.

They strolled through the Jardin de Recuerdos, or Garden of Memories, in the other greenhouse, as youngsters and adults alike made paper marigolds out of strips of orange paper, decorated diadema headbands and had their faces painted with calavera, or skulls--traditional symbols of remembrance,

The Mental Health Well-Being Initiative was among the groups building an ofrenda. It was  inspired by a grandfather clock in Tammy Davis’s office at the Crisis Hotline. It sported a backdrop of scarves in a rainbow of colors touting positivity and more.

It included a phone signifying that help is a call away at the Crisis Hotline, and it invited viewers to choose a sugar skull cookie and write a word that gives strength on the back.

“There’s a time to walk and see all you can see. There’s a time to run and be all you can be.  Then there’s a time to fly and just be free!” a sign said.

Davis pointed to a picture of her grandparents on their wedding day, noting that the ofrenda was meant to reflect on how remembrance and connection supports one’s mental well-being.

“We want to create awareness that, even though a loved one may have passed, their memory can still bring joy. It can still be a source of strength,” she added.

One woman smiled as she studied the various ofrendas.

“My son—Gavin Deal--made one celebrating the life of his yellow lab Lulu when he was at Alturas Elementary,” said Sumi Sankaran-Deal. “He’s now 14, but that was so meaningful.”