School project Día de los Muertos

A special form of intercultural learning

On Día de los Muertos, Mexicans commemorate their deceased in a casual and almost cheerful manner. They assume that their deceased relatives will pay them a visit on this day. For this purpose, they set up magnificent, colorful gift tables, so-called "Ofrendas", with all the things that the deceased loved.

This way of dealing with death, which is perhaps unusual for Central Europeans, is for many Mexicans an essential part of their own identity. It is lovingly cultivated as a tradition. But at the same time it initiates new forms of dealing with shocking events, as the project of students of the class R8a of the school Hegelsberg Kassel showed.

As part of the project, which began on November 2, 2022, the students learned new forms of expression in dealing with death and mourning and made the experience that with different forms of cultural practice something independently new can arise. They discovered ways to deal with experiences of loss individually and collectively. In agreeing on a theme and developing a common concept, they learned to respect individual and cultural boundaries.

The inclusion of everyday materials, objects and cultural techniques required creativity, but also the learning of new craft skills. The project ended on December 6, 2022, with a teacher training session at which the students presented the results of their work to the participating teachers.