Sample Annotations (without MLA format citation) for my LIB 100F and LIB 100HF students

 

Annotated Bibliography: El Dia De Los Muertos & All Souls Day  

by Monique Delatte Starkey 

(updated 2009)

El Dia De Los Muertos: Web Site Links  

Smithsonian Latino Center’s Theater of the Dead

http://latino.si.edu/DayoftheDead/

Click and drag colorful papel de picado (punched paper), calavera (skulls and skeletons), marigolds, photos, toys, and foodstuffs to build an online altar. This Smithsonian National Museum of American History site provides PDF lesson plans, and information about the ofrenda, symbolism, spirits, and customs and beliefs relating to El Dia de los Muertos.

U.S. Department of the Interior: Dia de los Muertos

http://www.nps.gov/cham/historyculture/day-of-the-dead-celebration.htm

Available in Spanish or English, this Web page offers a brief history of El Dia de los Muertos. Created by the National Park Service, the site features a slideshow and information about las catrinas, a popular El Dia de los Muertos image created by Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada.

Traditions of Mexico: El Dia de los Muertos

http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/frontphotos.html

Developed by the Houston Institute for Culture, Traditions of Mexico: El Dia de los Muertos y Mas, addresses traditions such as sugar skulls, altars, and pan de muertos. Also indexes interviews that delve into the stories of Spanish-speaking persons recollecting and describing the traditions of El Dia de los Muertos.

ThinkQuest Library: Dia de los Muertos Links

http://library.thinkquest.org/trio/TTQ03066/links.html

An annotated bibliography of links relating to El Dia de los Muertos. This list includes resources such as the Mexico Connect (a monthly e-zine) and Arizona Central (a daily newspaper).
All Souls’ Day & All Saints’ Day

American Folklife Center: The Fantasy and Folklore of All Hallows

http://www.loc.gov/folklife/halloween.html

Authored by Jack Santino, Professor of Popular Culture, for the University of Pennsylvania, this Library of Congress Web page describes the origins of All Souls’ Day and Halloween.

Catholic Education Resource Center: All Saints’ and All Souls’

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0199.html

In this reprinted article from the Arlington Catholic Herald, the Dean of the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College, Father William Saunders, details the origination of the All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, and Halloween holidays. As Saunders is the pastor of Our Lady of Hope Parish in Sterling, Virginia, he succinctly presents these histories from the Catholic point of view.

The Cabildo: Antebellum Louisiana --- Disease, Death, and Mourning

http://lsm.crt.louisiana.gov/cabildo/cab8a.htm

As All Souls’ and All Saints’ Day are holy days in the Catholic religion, the celebration of these holidays in the heavily Catholic state of Louisiana could be considered relevant to research of these traditions. This site, presented by the Cabildo, a Louisiana State Museum, provides information about mourning in the antebellum era, images of related holdings, historical photographs, and a nineteenth century advertisement.

Zenit: Reflection on All Souls’ Day and All Saints’ Day

http://www.zenit.org/article-14438?l=english

Based in New York, Zenit.org reports the activities, writings, and lectures of the Bishop of Rome, or pope, in Vatican City. This particular piece is of interest to the researcher, as it can be considered as a primary resource. The Zenit site provides a translation of an address by Pope Benedict XVI in which he speaks of the tradition and spirit that embody All Saints’ Day. To the thousands listening in St. Peter’s Square, the pope says, “Dear friends, may the traditional visit of these days to the tombs of our dead be an opportunity to think without fear about the mystery of death.”