A past Day of the Dead Columbus, Oct. 8, 2022. Credit: Christian Schaefer
Day of the Dead Columbus, a free festival held annually and centered around the holiday of the same name, is back for another year of bringing Latinx culture to Columbus.
This year, Day of the Dead Columbus will take place Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at Green Lawn Cemetery in Franklinton. The event is hosted by Latino Arts for Humanity, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving Latino arts, according to the festival’s website. The festival is also a partnership with Ohio State’s Center for Ethnic Studies, which will be providing free bus transportation to the event, according to the center’s website.
Leticia Vazquez-Smith, founder of Latino Arts for Humanity and Day of the Dead Columbus, said she started the festival many years ago, but it wasn’t quite a festival in the beginning. In 1999 — after emigrating from Mexico to Columbus with the Columbus International Program —, Vazquez-Smith said she had to give a presentation on Mexican culture to her program cohorts.
Because of its significance to Mexican culture, Vazquez-Smith said she gave her presentation on Day of the Dead — Día de los Muertos.
“I thought that Day of the Dead is the most representative aspect of Mexico,” Vazquez-Smith said. “It goes way back to over 3,000 years ago in history, it’s very deep in the culture and also really represents the soul of Mexico even before the Spanish came. It is really the one celebration that has been preserved.”
Vazquez-Smith said her presentation resonated deeply with her peers, resulting in “a little worship” of the holiday within her program. Over time, she said the small gathering continued to expand until it ultimately became the festival it is today in 2017 at Green Lawn Cemetary.
An increase in funding, specifically from Ohio State’s Office of Outreach and Engagement, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Center for Ethnic Studies, has created more opportunities for the festival’s live music bookings, Vazquez-Smith said.
“As we grow, fortunately, we have more support and sponsorships,” Vazquez-Smith said. “So, we’ve been able this year to bring mariachi, which we wanted to bring before but our project was limited. We’ve gotten to the point that we can pay for that and we’re very excited.”
The festival continues to grow every year, Vazquez-Smith said. With roughly 4,000 attendees in 2022, she said organizers have high hopes of an even higher turnout this year in order to educate as many people as possible about ancient Latinx traditions.
“What we’re trying to do is explain to the general public about this concept, its true roots, the meaning and why it is important to celebrate,” Vazquez-Smith said. “I mean, if you think about it, everybody’s going to die, and I never feel afraid to talk about that because it’s very much in my culture. In Columbus, there was a little lack of celebration of Day of the Dead, and it seemed like people felt like they were not allowed to talk about others that have died.”
Leila Vieira, assistant director at Ohio State’s Center for Latin American Studies and an organizer of this year’s festival, said the event’s appeal extends beyond the Latinx community.
“Latino Arts for Humanity wants to do Day of the Dead Columbus for their own celebration of their heritage, and it is for Latinos in a sense, but also for the whole, that’s why they call it Day of the Dead Columbus,” Vieira said. “They want the whole Columbus community to feel like they’re a part of it.”
Vieira said she hopes the Ohio State Latinx community will attend Day of the Dead Columbus, as it is a great way to immerse oneself in Latinx culture while also getting the chance to experience more of what Columbus has to offer.
“I feel a lot of the time OSU students stay on campus and end up not seeing what’s around them,” Vieira said. “There’s a huge Latinx community here in Columbus, so I really love when they go out, see it and interact with it. It’s also good for the Latinx students here at Ohio State because they’re on a predominantly white campus and then they go to the event and they’re like, ‘Look, I’m just like everyone around me here.’”
Vieira said there will be ample activities and opportunities for students at the festival, including an art exhibit where people can purchase Latinx-made art, various food vendors, a poetry class, live music, dancing, free face painting for kids and more. Shuttle buses will be leaving from the corner of 11th Avenue and North High Street, by Barnes and Noble, to transport students during festival hours.
Along with the light-hearted fun, Vazquez-Smith said there’s also a sense of spirituality at Day of the Dead Columbus, as the day is ultimately a celebratory remembrance of deceased loved ones. Although based in Latinx culture, Vazquez-Smith said anyone can celebrate.
“By doing the Day of the Dead Columbus festival, we have invited other countries to talk about how they remember the people that have died and there is so much communion in that,” Vazquez-Smith said, “I also believe that, with these times, we really need to embrace other cultures to try to preserve humanity as a whole. I think it’s very important.”
