Community encouraged to come out, remember loved ones

(Seguin) — What started as a way to honor loved ones has now become one of Seguin’s most colorful celebrations. The annual Día de los Muertos event returns to Central Park this Saturday night.

Hosting the event is Goetz Funeral Home, Palmer Mortuary & Cremations, and the Seguin-Guadalupe County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Denay Gonzales of Goetz Funeral Home says the event is a rich cultural tradition of remembering and celebrating those who have passed.

“Dia de los Muertos has a rich history with Hispanics, and we are a Hispanic community. This is one way that we remember and honor all of our loved ones. We did start this in 2019 in our chapel and continued about 2022 but 2023 is when Palmer and Goetz invited the Seguin Hispanic Chamber to co-host the event in hopes of making it larger and we have certainly done that and we are hoping for it to be even bigger this year but we just honor and remember those traditions and remember all the loved ones that we have lost this year and in years before and we encourage the community to bring photos of loved ones to place on our community altar,” said Gonzales.

Now in its growing years, the Día de los Muertos celebration has become one of Seguin’s most anticipated fall events. Gonzales says the celebration will feature food trucks, live mariachis, folklórico dancers, family-friendly activities, and a best-decorated altar contest.

“It’s colorful. It’s vibrant — the celebration. We hope that this assists our community by processes grief and reframing death as a celebration of life,” said Gonzales.

Community members are encouraged to take part by creating their own altars to honor departed loved ones.

Gonzales says families can share photos, candles, flowers, and personal mementos as part of the community altar or reserve their own space for a personal altar.

“Members of the community are encouraged to also set up their own altar if they would like to. They are welcome too. They can give Palmer Mortuary a call and reserve a space, but we also have a community altar for those that will not be setting up their own altar to just bring a framed photo of their loved one and we can display it on our community altar,” said Gonzales.

The Dia de los Muertos event is free and will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. this Saturday – Nov. 1 — in Central Park.

To reserve an altar space, call Palmer Mortuary at (830) 379-9430.