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GENERAL ENGLISH · ENGLISH IN VIDEO · PRE-INTERMEDIATE (A2-B1)

DAY OF
THE DEAD
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1 Warm up

The Day of the Dead (also called All Saints’ Day) is celebrated in many countries on 2 November. The
celebrations in Mexico are very famous. What do you know about how they celebrate this festival in
Mexico?

These things are all used to celebrate the Day of the Dead in Mexico. Write the words in the correct
places on the mind map.

graves in a cemetery guitars old sculptures processions/parades

candles crosses fireworks flowers
lanterns models of skulls paper flags photographs of relatives
silver skeletons skeleton dolls skeleton face paint trumpets

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2 Watching for the main idea

You are going to watch a short video about the Day of the Dead and you will see all the items on your
mind map. Tick each one when you see it. You may see some items more than once! Do you have
any similar festivals in your country?

3 Watching for detail

First, just read these three parts of the transcript from the video – you can use the glossary to help
you understand the words in bold. Some words are missing but the first letters are given. Next, decide
if the missing word is a verb, noun or adjective. Imagine/remember which words would complete the
text. Finally watch and check your ideas.

PART 1 1
The day of the dead is a festival and in that sense it is very much a c and I
(1:01-1:23)
suppose that is something that appeals to European and North American people because
2
that’s not the way we understand d .
3 4
Death is for us, a s moment. We do remember our d but we
remember them in times of solemnity.

PART 2 5
It’s a multi-sensory e , I think both for the people who make the altar and for
(2:05-2:39)
6
the dead that v .
7
People go on journeys with the o and take them to their burial places and
8 9
they’re sort of e this idea of the boundary ‘between’ the l and
the dead.

PART 3
What we’re really talking about is what you see in a lot of cultures, which is material
(3:54-4:22)
10
culture or images and ideas being t through time, obviously evolving as they
11
come into c with other cultures, so Mexican culture is very much a mix of
12 13
the d pre-Hispanic Meso-American cultures that e before the
Spanish conquest and all the influence that came from Europe which wasn’t just from Spain.

GLOSSARY
appeals to: interests or attracts someone
solemnity: serious and sad feelings
multi-sensory: using several senses at the same time, eg seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting
altar: a small table used in religious ceremonies
burial: placing a dead body in a grave in the ground (verb - to bury)
boundary: a line that separates two different things or areas
evolving: changing over time

Pre-Hispanic Meso-American: referring to the peoples who were living in Mexico before the arrival of
the Spanish in the 16th century, eg the Aztecs
conquest: taking control of an area as a result of winning a war (verb - to conquer)

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DAY OF THE DEAD

4 Word families

You need to understand both grammar and meaning to use vocabulary correctly. Complete the word
family table. You do not need to write in the boxes with —, but you need to record two nouns in the
boxes with a *.

Verb Noun Adjective

celebration —

contact —

death / the dead (people)

different

exist —

experience —

explore * / *(people) —

* / the living (people)

offerings —

remember —

— sad

transfer —

visit * / (people) —

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5 Practice

Complete the crossword with words from today’s lesson.

Across
4. At the end of the video, one of the speakers said, " are really important in a world
where it’s so easy to forget."
6. If you are in Mexico on the Day of the Dead, you will some amazing sights and sounds.
7. Lots of people paint their faces to look like on the Day of the Dead.
9. Mexicans remember family members for a long time after they .
10. The Day of the Dead continues some very old cultural traditions that before the
Spanish arrived in Mexico.
11. to Mexico will enjoy seeing new things and eating new foods.
Down
1. No one is happy all the time; there is some in everybody’s life.
2. Mexicans go to the cemetery and decorate the of family members on 2 November.
3. In many parts of the world, people walk down the streets in big to celebrate important
holidays.
5. People set off at night during celebrations like the Day of the Dead and New Year’s
Eve.
6. In the 16th century, many European travelled to North and South America.
8. Mexican families flowers and food to the dead on 2 November.

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DAY OF THE DEAD

Transcripts

2. Watching for the main idea

(Omar Regalado Fernandez, paleobotanist) The Day of the Dead is regarded as a time where the
dead can come alive again. The dead is nothing we have to be afraid of, it is just a part of life that
we have to face and in Mexican culture that has become actually really important in the way we
perceive life.

1:01-1:23

(Laura Osorio Sunnucks, project curator) The day of the dead is a festival and in that sense it is very
much a celebration and I suppose that is something that appeals to European and North American
people because that’s not the way we understand death. Death is for us, a sad moment. We do
remember our dead but we remember them in times of solemnity.

(Betsabee Romero, visual artist) I can see how this kind of tradition gets (a) connection with other
people,..... this celebration is a demonstration of generosity, with richness of colour and with the
sound, with the air, with the paper that moves, the talk between all the family. Not with sadness,
not like someone that we lost but like someone who is still with us.

2:05-2:39

(Laura Osorio Sunnucks, project curator) It’s a multi-sensory experience, I think both for the people
who make the altar and for the dead that visit. People go on journeys with the offerings and take
them to their burial places and they’re sort of exploring this idea of the boundary between the
living and the dead. It’s a liminal... place and liminal places often need catalysts to bring things
closer together. They eat together and of course listen to music and remember fondly their dead.

(Betsabee Romero, visual artist) What is interesting in this celebration is not that death..... is coming
to eat or is coming to drink on the night because we cannot see them. The grandmother says that
they take the spirit of things and they take the love of us.

(Omar Regalado Fernandez, paleobotanist) It’s really impressive how the atmosphere becomes really
really nice. The smell of all the flowers that have been torn apart to create that atmosphere actually
makes you feel that you are going to something else beyond life. It’s conveyed by the flowers and
its really weird because it’s the same smell but it can tell you so many different things.

(Betsabee Romero, visual artist) Day of the dead as well is something to show us how the
colonisations and the changes in the history of our country may include the new things but
preserving tradition.

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3:54-4:22

(Laura Osorio Sunnucks, project curator) What we’re really talking about is what you see in a lot of
cultures, which is material culture or images and ideas being transferred through time, obviously
evolving as they come into contact with other cultures, so Mexican culture is very much a mix of
the different pre-Hispanic Meso-American cultures that existed before the Spanish conquest and
all the influence that came from Europe which wasn’t just from Spain.

(Betsabee Romero, visual artist) I appreciate the sense of celebration, to be able to celebrate even
the death, people continue their life on the memories of others. And I think memories are really
important, in a world where it’s so easy to forget.

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Key

1. Warm up

Time: 10 mins. Before you give out the worksheet, write Day of the Dead on the board and ask students what
they know about it. They may think it is the same as Halloween, but these are celebrated on different days and in
different countries. Halloween is on 31 October, and is mainly celebrated in the USA, although it is becoming more
popular in other countries now. The Day of the Dead is a Catholic festival (also called All Saints’ or All Souls’ Day)
and is celebrated on 2 November mainly in Mexico. Some of the imagery of the Day of the Dead is very popular
nowadays on t-shirts, bags and other merchandise. It’s fine if students don’t know much about this festival, as the
object of the lesson is to find out more!
Go over the vocabulary and drill pronunciation. Students can work in pairs or small groups to write the words
in the right category on the mind map. Encourage them to help each other by explaining the words. There are
likely to be a few items that students are not sure about, so encourage guessing or you could allow students to
check just a few items with their dictionaries or phones in the last 1-2 minutes before you check answers with
the class. Students will have an opportunity to see all these things in the next activity, so it’s best to avoid the use
of images in this stage of the lesson. There may be several sensible answers which seem possible – this is fine, as
long as students have a good reason for their alternative answer. However, the number of items in each section
is indicated and this should guide students to the answers given here.
Answers:
lights: candles, fireworks, lanterns
death: crosses, graves in a cemetery, photographs of relatives
prehistory: old sculptures
music and performance: guitars, processions, trumpets
decorations: flowers, models of skulls, paper flags, silver skeletons, skeleton dolls, skeleton face paint

2. Watching for the main idea

Time: 10 mins. Watch the video (0:00 - 4:45). Students should tick off each item as they see them – this
activity confirms their understanding of the vocabulary and also gives them an overview of the Day of the Dead
celebrations. Take a few minutes at the end to ask students:
Did you see everything on the list? (If not, briefly elicit what they missed and explain or use sketches to confirm
what the item is)
What did you see more than once?
What did you like the most?
And also invite discussion of the question on the worksheet. Monocultural classes may not want to talk about
this for long, but classes with students from a variety of backgrounds will enjoy sharing their customs with each
other – place them in pairs or groups that facilitate this.

3. Watching for detail

Time: 15 mins. Students will listen to Laura Osorio Sunnucks, project curator of an exhibition at the British
Museum, speaking about Day of the Dead. First, students read the three extracts and use the glossary to help
them understand some of the more advanced vocabulary. You could do this with the whole class, either nominating
a student to read each sentence, or as a guided reading activity, where the teacher reads the text and the students

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listen and read silently. Either way, pause to explore the items in bold – but reassure students that these items are
not target language for this lesson; they are just there to help them understand the rest of the text. Then students
complete a gap-fill prediction exercise, supplying both the part of speech missing from each gap (verb, noun or
adjective) and the actual word that is missing, using the clue of the first letter and their memory or imagination.
Demonstrate the activity with the first sentence or two – the context should guide the students to deciding the
part of speech (also see answers below). Students can work in pairs to complete the exercise. Then check answers
with the whole class, guiding them to correctly identify each part of speech from the context – see answers below
for more support. Also record their predictions of the missing words, but don’t confirm or deny these at this stage.
Finally play each video clip in turn and check answers, comparing them to student predictions. The extracts are
short, so play them twice if students need this. ANSWERS:
1. celebration (noun – preceded by the article ‘a’)
2. death (noun – object of the verb ‘understand’)
3. sad (adjective – referring to the noun ‘moment’)
4. dead (noun – people who have died, object of the verb ‘remember’ and preceded by the possessive pronoun
‘our’)
5. experience (noun: preceded by the article ‘a’ and the adjective ‘multi-sensory’)
6. visit (verb)
7. offerings (noun: preceded by the article ‘the’)
8. exploring (verb: present continuous - are exploring)
9. living (noun – people who are alive, object of the preposition between and preceded by the article ‘the’)
10. transferred (verb: passive – being transferred)
11. contact (noun – of the preposition ‘into’)
12. different (adjective referring to the noun ‘cultures’)
13. existed (verb)

4. Word families

Time: 10 mins. Remind students that they need to understand grammar as well as meaning to use vocabulary
successfully. Students complete the word families in the table – that some items are not suitable to complete at
this level (or even possible at all), and these are indicated by —. Demonstrate the first item and then students
can work in pairs to finish the exercise. Check answers with the whole class and record and drill pronunciation
(underlined syllables are stressed). Highlight these points:
- some nouns can have two forms – the main noun and then the people (indicated by *)
- typical endings for nouns include -ation, -ence and -ness
- some forms are the same for two parts of speech
- sometimes the stressed syllable changes as the word gets longer
Answers (verb | noun | adj.):
celebrate | celebration | — contact | contact | —
die | | death/the dead (people) | dead differ | difference | different
exist | existence | — experience | experience | —
explore | exploration/explorer (people) | — live | life/the living (people) | alive
offer | offerings | — remember | memory | —
— | sadness | sad transfer | transfer | —
visit | visit/visitor (people) | —

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5. Practice

Time: 15 mins. This crossword puzzle recycles vocabulary and information from the lesson. Make sure students
understand how to do a crossword and demonstrate with a couple of clues. Students will find it helpful to look
back at the word families table and the gap-fill exercises, as well as the mind map. They should consider both
the meaning and the grammar of each missing word carefully in order to find the correct solution. Students could
work in pairs; there are several ways to set this up. They could just work together on all the clues, or one student
could do the across clues while the other does the down clues, before cross checking. Alternatively, students
could work in groups of four, with two students collaborating on the across clues and two on the down clues,
before cross checking. Monitor and help if any students are stuck. This activity could also be set/completed for
homework.
Across: 4 memories, 6 experience, 7 skulls, 9 die, 10 existed, 11 visitors
Down: 1 sadness, 2 graves, 3 processions, 5 fireworks, 6 explorers, 8 offer

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