To honor her grandmother, Shawna Zimmer set up an altar at the Nicolaysen Art Museum with synthetic marigolds and other flowers, some religious icons, and a couple of vices.

"She liked Diet Coke and Snickers," Zimmer said. "And her favorite color was blue."

Down the hall, Stephanie McCash erected an altar in honor of her father, a registered nurse who died 10 years ago.

Beside his picture, McCash adorned the altar with marigolds, skulls, votive candles, and his favorite candies -- double-dipped chocolate peanuts and maple goodies.

She also had placed a pair of large plush slippers because his feet would swell, and an inhaler because he had severe asthma, McCash said. "If he were to come back, he might need a puff or two."

Their altars are among the exhibits for a week-long show about the Mexican holiday of the Day of the Dead, starting with a reception at 2 p.m. today and ending on Nov. 8.

The show is a project of Valerie Innella's museum studies class. Zimmer is a student in the class. McCash learned of the project from her friend Inella.

"Cultures around the world have struggled with death and how to overcome that," Inella said.

Since about 1200 B.C., indigenous cultures in Central America dealt with this ultimate question with a tradition now known as the Day of the Dead. According to the tradition outlined in a brochure available at the exhibit, the boundary between the living and the dead -- who dwell in an eternal resting place called Mictlan -- dissolves for one day of the year and the souls of the departed visit their families.

But because of the timing of this holiday after Halloween, Inella and her students need to explain what the day of the dead is not.

It is not about pagan sacrifices, witchcraft, being scary, trick-or-treating, seances, conjuring or magic.

"It's not a haunted house," said Sam Finch, a student in Inella's class.

The celebration, Finch said, was observed during July and August until the Spanish conquests in the 16th century. The Conquistadors, as part of their effort to convert the indigenous people to Catholicism, tried to ban the practice of the Day of the Dead.

But the tradition persisted.

The Europeans saw similarities between the Day of the Dead and the Catholic holiday of All Saints Day, and the celebration evolved to its present form with childrens' souls arriving on Nov. 1 and adults' souls arriving on Nov. 2, Finch said. "The natives could practice it without being persecuted."

The observances of the Day of the Dead vary among the regions of Mexico, she added.

Families make altars for their ancestors and decorate them with marigolds to entice the spirits' return, Finch said.

They also make and wear masks representing the departed, she said. "The masks are not to scare people, but to tell people and children not to be afraid of death."

Another student, Lorine Edwards, said altars feature the four elements of earth, wind, fire and water.

Food represents the earth. Families make an orange- and anise-flavored bread called pan de muerto, often with dough twisted into the shape of bones and crowned with a tear to show the deceased that they are missed.

Wind is represented by banners that wave in the breeze.

Candles are lit, one candle for each soul and one candle for any forgotten soul who does not have living relatives.

Water, or beer, or tequila or other liquid, is placed on the altar to quench the thirsts of the visiting souls.

Other decorations include skulls often made of sugar and decorated with images of the departed's personal interests, and skeletons adorned with clothes and flowers, Edwards said.

"Other cultures kind of freak out because of the bones and skeletons," she said.

But the use of these seemingly frightening objects is comparable to some Christian traditions of using reliquaries to hold the bones of saints, Edwards said. And the placing of flowers is similar to what Americans do to honor fallen soldiers on Memorial Day in late May.

Some of the foods are in the shapes of skulls, and eating them teaches people to not be afraid of death, she said. "Death is a transition."

Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at tom.morton@trib.com. Read his blog at tribtown.trib.com/TomMorton/blog

IF YOU GO

The Day of the Dead exhibit begins at 2 p.m. today with a reception at the Nicolaysen Art Museum, 400 E. Collins Drive. The reception features the Flores de Colores Dance Troupe from Cheyenne, a mariachi singer, and opportunities to visit with the students who organized the exhibit. The exhibit continues through Nov. 8.