DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS
"Day of the Dead" in Ecuador, 2011
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DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS "Day of the Dead" in Ecuador, 2011 |
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"Day of the
Dead" - Dr. Howard Frye's student field
trip to Ecuador
During the Fall 2011 semester, Dr. Howard Frye took Francis Marion University students on a field trip to Ecuador to study their version of the Day of the Dead, which is known as El Dia de los Difuntos (the Day of the Departed). The students--Tori LoPresto, an art education major, and Tyler Pate, a visual arts major with specialization in visual communications -- and Dr. Frye visited Ecuador's highland cities of Otavalo, Calderon, Ibarra, San Antonio de Ibarra, and Cotacachi to observe the event. El Dia de los Difuntos falls on November 2 and it is a major holiday for the entire country, but it is an especially important occasion for the indigenous people of the northern highlands. There the day is celebrated following centuries old customs, whose origins predate the Incas. The entire town seems to visit the cemetery on or before the holiday to decorate the graves and to share food and drink with the dead. While in Ecuador, Dr. Frye and his students also visited the capital city of Quito to view the architectural wonders of the historic district, one of the first two places designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO. They also took advantage of the opportunity to visit the nearby cloud forests, one of the most ecologically diverse places on the planet. Since their return, the students have been working on an educational resource kit about the holiday that will be made available to the local community. LoPresto has written a standards-based lesson unit and Pate will create the product design and graphic layout for the kit. The trip was sponsored by a Francis Marion University Quality Enhancement Grant to support non-traditional learning projects. |
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