“Whenever we celebrate Day of the dead, usually my family comes together, typically immediate family and we’ll all come together and meet up at my grandma’s house and we’ll have pictures of our family there. We’ll have dinner together and celebrate it and think about what it means. We always celebrate it every year and we never fail to miss it because it’s a super important part of our culture. It’s fun to be with family and be able to recognize the importance that it holds. I do celebrate it with my family and I do take time out of my day to make sure they are appreciated.”

“If it is with my grandma it is intimate [with] deeper meaning to us. We will go to the graveyard and put the marigold flowers there or floras de muertos. She will make the altar or ofrenda in her room covered with different flowers and crosses and La Virgin de Guadalupe because that was most meaningful to her  family. If I’m celebrating with my dad and my step mom we will make a huge alter and put La Virgen de Guadalupe at the top [with] crosses and flowers. With my great grandpa we put his picture [and] put a fedora because that [was] his favorite hat to wear. It is important to me because I like the way it is celebrated. When we think of their deaths, people think it’s sad they passed away but on the day of the dead I feel like they are with me.”

“I prepare by setting up an altar and I get photos of my family members and light up candles. We set them on the altar and when it hits midnight on November 2, that is when we start setting up the candles and saying thank you to them (family ancestors). ”

“So in our family there are three steps, usually going to step seven. The steps represent how the souls are walking to Heaven, which is the whole goal of Day of the Dead. What we believe is they’re in limbo state and we have to help them get there.  November 2 is when we dedicate to praying for all those souls. We do special prayers to ask God, ‘Can you please help these people that we love get into heaven,’ and we have to keep doing it every year. We believe we have to pray for people who die to get into heaven and once they get into heaven, we keep praying either way, so our prayers go to other people who died and don’t have anyone praying for them.”