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The University of Southampton
Humanities

National Schools Mexican Day of the Dead Altar Video Competition and Curriculum Enrichment

Published: 7 March 2023
Highcliffe Secondary, altar
Highcliffe Secondary, altar and winners of the 2022 video competition

The Mexican Embassy in the UK and co-collaborator Dr Jane Lavery (Southampton University, Languages, Cultures and Linguistics) had the pleasure of inviting school children across England to participate in the first National Schools Mexican Day of the Dead Altar Video competition and curriculum enrichment activities.

The Embassy-MLL collaboration emerged from Lavery’s knowledge exchange arts-based engagement research and is informed by her 2021 peer-reviewed article and related The Conversation article (2022), examining the appropriation of the Mexican Day of the Dead in the UK, the need to give more visibility of this practice in the UK to wider communities and to break with unhelpful stereotypes.

Lavery’s research-led indicative seeks to enrich the curriculum by encouraging schools to teach children about what the Mexican practice is about – and why it’s not an extension of Halloween but something culturally distinct underpinned by its own religious history, meaning and rituals; an invaluable means of children celebrating diversity and inclusivity; and to speak, and think about, death and commemoration in different, and more open ways. The purpose of the school activities and video is to encourage participants to learn through active creative hands-on engagement about this fascinating cultural festival. Children from all years (7-13) engaged in cross-curricular activities such as cooking, art-craft making, altar building, singing, writing poetry, costume making and face-painting. The initiative also seeks to support teachers with CPD and teaching material provision.

On 5 December 2022, Jane hosted an online awards ceremony with the Mexican Ambassador to the UK Josefa González-Blanco  where the four top winning schools were announced. They were all awarded a hamper and a personalised trophy. The Bournemouth Echo covered the story of the winning school of the competition, local Highcliffe Secondary School in Dorset.

With approximately 1000 children having engaged in the activities in November 2022 following the call, the benefits of such an initiative are evidenced in the outstanding feedback provided by pupils and teachers who commented on the distinct impact of the initiative to their learning, teaching experiences and curriculum enrichment. All schools reported that it was the first time that they had been involved in such a project.

The collaboration with Jane has been welcomed by the Mexican Embassy as it has contributed directly to their cultural affairs strategy by promoting knowledge in British society of traditional and contemporary Mexican cultural expressions. Having witnessed the success of this initiative, the Mexican Embassy is keen to continue with this activity next year in collaboration with Jane.

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