M&M Marketplace in Hillsboro will host a free Día de los Muertos celebration Saturday, Oct. 31, and Sunday, Nov. 1. The two-day event at 346 S.W. Walnut St. runs 3-7 p.m. both days.
Activities include live music, traditional altars, a Catrina contest, a literary calaveritas contest, a photo booth and face painting, according to the marketplace's event page. Calaveritas literarias are short, often humorous poems about death and the living. Admission is free.
The indoor marketplace sells many of the supplies families use to build home altars, or ofrendas, The Oregonian reported. Shoppers can find fresh and artificial marigolds, sugar skulls, Catrina figurines and papel picado, the decorative cut-paper banners hung above altars.
María Ribas, a vendor at Calaveritas Ribas, sells sugar skulls, small figurines and papel picado. She told The Oregonian in Spanish that the holiday carries deep personal meaning.
"On the first day, the children arrive and they are given what they liked in life: toys, sweets," Ribas said. "The second day, the adults are celebrated and sugar skulls are placed on the altar."
Patricia Pozos, a vendor at Patzy's Jumpers, sells miniature ofrendas, food-themed decorations and alebrijes, the brightly colored folk-art creatures that serve as spirit guides. Pozos told The Oregonian she makes mole every year because her mother liked it.
Yaneth Fraga of Mariposa Beauty Studio, which will sell Catrina makeovers during the celebration, described La Catrina's significance to The Oregonian. La Catrina is the elegantly dressed skeleton figure that has become a symbol of the holiday.
The Miranda family founded M&M Marketplace in October 2000 with about 20 independent businesses, according to the marketplace's website. It has grown to roughly 80 vendors selling clothing, shoes, jewelry, food and household goods.
Día de los Muertos is rooted in Indigenous traditions and Catholic observances. Families build ofrendas decorated with photographs, candles, flowers and food to welcome the spirits of deceased loved ones. Marigolds, known as cempasúchil, are believed to guide spirits back to the living.
The celebration is listed on the city of Hillsboro's community calendar. M&M Marketplace is open Fridays from noon to 7 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
