HONORING ANCESTORS; DIA DE LOS MUERTOS CELEBRATED AT FESTIVAL.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

A centuries-old combination of Spanish Catholicism and Indian tributes to the dead came Saturday to the Poncitlan Plaza.

People hung papier-mache skeletons from lampposts and made sugar candy skulls and sweet rolls decorated with bits of dough shaped like bones. To an altar marked with images of skulls and festooned with marigolds, they brought tortillas, fruits, flan and photographs of deceased loved ones.

``It's a celebration, actually, to say, we know that you are in a better place,'' said Palmdale resident Magdalena ``Maggie'' Ramirez, who as a girl took part in Dia de los Muertos in her hometown of Gomez Palacio in the Mexican state of Durango. ``It's a celebration with Mass first. After Mass, we'd go to the cemetery. . . . You'd see people all over the cemetery. You'd see flowers all over, food all over.''

Dia de los Muertos - Day of the Dead - is a traditional Latin American holiday held on the Roman Catholic feast days of All Saints Day and All Souls Day - Nov. 1-2.

It is most prevalent in the southern Mexican states, like Michoacan, Oaxaca and Jalisco, the location of Palmdale's sister city Poncitlan, for which the plaza is named.

Participants say Dia de los Muertos retains a religious orientation, unlike Halloween. Like the traditional Mexican observances, the Palmdale event started with an open-air Mass.

While Halloween's decorations are pumpkins, ghosts and black cats, Dia de los Muertos' symbols are sugar-candy skulls (dulces de calavara), costumed papier-mache skeletons (catrinas), lacy paper cutouts of palm trees and skulls (papel picado) and sweet rolls decorated with bits of dough shaped like bones (pan de muerto).

In Mexico, people pray for recently deceased loved ones and for their ancestors in general, then go to the cemetery to spruce up the graves and bring offerings of food that were the dead person's favorites in life.

The favorite flowers for adorning graves are marigolds, or cempazuchiles, because they wilt so quickly.

``The same as people,'' explained Laura Escalante, one of the Palmdale organizers. ``We don't last long, and flowers don't last long either.''

For some of the Palmdale participants, even the organizers, this was their first time to experience the event, though they might have heard about it from parents.

Escalante, her daughter and her daughter's friend molded dozens of candy skulls from sugar and egg whites, decorating them with feathers, glitter, beads and icing.

``We just looked at pictures,'' said Escalante, a Palmdale resident.

The event was put on by the Antelope Valley's four largest Latino organizations: the Antelope Valley chapter of the Mexican-American Political Association, Antelope Valley Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Latin American Club and Latinos Americanos en Accion. Organizers hope to mount the event next year.

``The whole idea is just to bring the community together, demonstrate some culture and kind of revive a cultural tradition that's kind of been lost around here,'' said chairman Roy Ramirez.

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4 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) People attending the Dia de los Muertos festival look at dulces de calavara, decorated skulls of egg whites and sugar, made by Laura Escalante.

(2 -- color) Susan Basulto wears a death face at the Dia de los Muertos festival.

(3 -- color) Festivalgoers place offerings at the Altar of the Dead on Saturday.

(4) Artist Maria Chamberlain of Palmdale displays Bread of the Dead and some of the other items she made for Dia de los Muertos.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer