Dia de los Muertos festivities return to Pike Place Market

Dia de Muertos is rooted in the belief that death doesn't end. The Mexican tradition brings together generations through food, art, music, and remembrance. This year, it's finding a home at one of Seattle's most recognizable landmarks. Fox 13's Alejandro Guzman takes a closer look at the meaning behind the celebration. In-foot school puppets, colorful altars, and the smell of fresh tamales and pan de muerto, Pike Place Market is filled with the colors, music, and flavors of Dia de Muertos. But behind the celebration are memories that make this tradition so personal. For Mexican artist Ernesto Ibarra, art is one way to keep his culture and the people he loves alive. Everybody has lost somebody that we love. Everybody understands the importance of remembering these people. In Mexican tradition, death isn't only something we mourn. It's honored. Families create ofrendas, altars with photographs, flowers, food, and other offerings to remember those lost and welcome their spirits. This may look like a costume, but in Mexican tradition, face painting and flower crowns are part of a much larger tradition accompanied by altares, where we not only remember our lost loved ones, but we keep their memories alive. For Mary and Ruel Cava, that means remembering her little brother Joseph, who died of cancer. It's just like a time where we sit down and appreciate everybody before us and just know that they're still alive and still incorporated in our lives even though they're not here. For many of the local vendors, having this celebration at Pike Place Market, one of Seattle's most iconic landmarks, is also about making space for their culture, their stories and the people who shape them. I think in a way it's remembering ourselves, right, so I think it's a very personal inward experience. You know, what comes to mind is my grandmother and, you know, how I wouldn't be painting without her. And not necessarily that she taught me how to paint, but more she just loved me unconditionally, which taught me how to love myself, which taught me how to chase after things that I want. Because the people we love live on in the stories we tell, and as long as we keep sharing those stories, they're never truly gone. Alejandro Guzman, Fox 13 News.