Children's Museum of Atlanta celebrates Día De Los Muertos

Well, back here at home, a tradition honoring the lives of loved ones is coming to families here in Atlanta. So the Children's Museum of Atlanta is celebrating Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. And our Maria Guzmán is at the museum this morning showing us around. Looks like it's all decorated and ready to go for this, Maria. There's definitely a little taste of Mexico right here at CMA because they have this beautiful altar. They call it an ofrenda in Spanish. But I'm going to go ahead and flip my camera to show you guys this beautiful altar. and also introduce you to Natalia who's here with the museum. So Natalia just first question you guys did bring this back from last year what really led you guys to say we need to bring this back again this year? Yeah so we worked with Natasha McDowell last year for this ofrenda and it was very popular. We had guests that were able to engage with the altar and make little altars for themselves and their families. We also had a lot of you know people being able to see their family traditions represented in the altar and it was so widely popular and so beautiful that we wanted to bring it back again this year. And Natasha is the artist who really took the lead on this altar. Just tell me a little bit about her because we are going to be speaking with her soon. Yes, so Natasha McDowell, we were introduced to her through the Mexican Consulate last year and she came out on Sunday with another artist, Son of the Moon, and they spent over three hours installing this like really elaborate uh really intricate thoughtful uh altar that you see here and then what can families and kids expect because this altar is just here for a few days it's here for a week it'll be here through November 3rd and families can engage with the altar in all sorts of ways and they can also make their own miniature altars or make their own skulls that we have crafts available for that they could also write names of loved ones on little butterflies they can put the butterflies on the altar here on their own altars at home if they like and what has been the kids reactions the parents reaction especially the families that just come from all backgrounds here yes so it's been really great for both families who recognize this kind of tradition and folks who haven't seen this before they get really excited because it's just so beautiful and impressive to look at. It's also very detail oriented and very colorful and so they're immediately drawn to all the pieces of it. Some of it is toys, some of it is play food, we have candles and art all throughout it. I love all the details behind this. There is also a hands-on portion of this so what does that um like um consist of yes so kids can build their own version of an altar they can incorporate pets or pictures of loved ones who have died they could also incorporate parts of food or toys as well they could also write names of loved ones who have died on butterflies that can represent um you know honoring those loved ones who have died or they can make skulls as well awesome well thank you so much again right here at the children's museum of Atlanta a little taste of Mexico i'll send things back to you guys in the studio very very nice Maria thank you so much for showing us that