For my research, I will examine why people keep and cherish the physical objects of loved ones who have passed and how it helps them connect with them physically. I know many people celebrate their loved ones differently. Many cultures have their own ways of remembering and connecting to their loved ones after they have passed. Some people just remember their loved ones on the day they passed every year by visiting their burial. One of the many ways I wanted to focus on through this research is the Day of the Dead because it is one of the most known ways of celebrating and remembering loved ones as well as focusing on the history of it. In Mexican culture, they celebrate and remember their loved ones every year on a holiday called the Day of the Dead.
Source 1: https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.rowan.edu/stable/483058?searchText=
Background: This article talks about the objects that are used to represent the people they are trying to celebrate and remember.
HOW I USED IT: I used this article to help explain more in-depth what the culture is surrounding the Day of the Dead and why it’s important. This article explain the art aspect and the decorations. I used it to talk and explain the decorations and the most important parts of this celebrations. Why sugar skulls are important to us and this holiday and how creating objects can help us remember and honor those who have passd.
Source 2:https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.rowan.edu/stable/10.5406/jamerfolk.126.501.0272?searchText=
Background: This article explains the culture behind the Day of the Dead as well as the origin and why it is so important to the culture.
How I used it: I used this article to help myself understand better how the celebration has changed over time and the new and old traditions of this celebrations. This article talks about how it all started and why people found it important in not only the grieving aspect but explains why and how it honors the dead. I also used it to better explain all of this as well. Explaing how the holiday can be changed and how other could join in on this special celebration.
Source 3:https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.rowan.edu/stable/24314384?searchText=
Background: This article, although it seems like the rest, goes more in-depth about the celebration and the festival parts of this holiday.
How I used it: I used this to understand and explain how many different parts of southern America celebrate and how it can change based on where you are from. That being how even people from Puebla, Mexico can celebrate it differently then people in Oxaca, Mexico. It just depends on where people are from and what they want to honor of the people that have passed.
Source 4:https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.rowan.edu/stable/541045?searchText=
Background: This article explains the religious and more of a political view on Mexican culture and the Day of the Dead as well.
How I intend to use it: I intend to use this article to understand and explain the political view on this holiday. Not everything should be about politics, especially culture/cultural holidays but politics always somehow has a way of getting involved.
Source 5:https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.rowan.edu/stable/179316?searchText=
Background: In a way this article helps explain that the Day of the Dead isn’t just something that Mexico celebrates and talks about the different versions of it in other people’s cultures. It also shows how even though it originated in Mexico, Mexicans/Mexican-Americans aren’t the only people who celebrate it.
How I used it: This article helped me better understand and explain the different variations of this holiday. In Mexico it is Dia de los Muetos but in other countries, like Puerto Rico, it is more commonly known as All saints day or All Souls day in other countries. This helped me explain how traditions like going to church during this holiday is important to some people celebrating because it helps the connection between them and the dead as well and the connection they have with their religion.
Background: This article helps answer some common questions about the food during the Day Of The Dead and helps explain it better while also providing some visuals and even recipes. I wasn’t exactly sure if it could be used because it is an article/food article but it did help me.
How I used this: I used this article to help talk about more of the traditional foods that are on the ofrenda or altar for those that have passed. It helped me explain the meaning the foods hold and why putting the favorite food or candie is important to this holiday. Using and putting food on the ofrenda is like an offering to get the spirits of those who have passed to come back on this day and feel more at home and welcomed. This is an important part of the celebration because of that.
Background: This article was written about researchers who went into the history and the traditions of the passed and the present and explain how things have changed and who exactly changed them. Some things are more traditional to Mexican-American that weren’t tradition to those from Mexico or other countries.
How I used it:I used to to explain more in depth the reason some people have changed certain things and their meanings to them depending on the person or family. Somethings that Mexican-Americans do or connect to this holidays weren’t used in the original indigenous practices. The practices also depend on where you are. The location of the person celebrating does have something to do with how they celebrate this and that is how I used it.
Background:This article talks about how to cope with a persons death and why objects can hold some type of sentimental feelings. It talks about the importance of these objects while also talking about what to do with these objects while using personal stories of other people.
How I used it: I used it to show how personal objects is important in the grieving process and why it could be beneficial to keep them. I also used it to help connect the importance of object to Day of the Dead by explaining how some people keep objects and pass them down and the symbol these objects hold. I also used the parts of the article to help give examples and argue against letting go of all objects.
Background: This article talks about the importance of letting go of personal belongings of those who have passed. It claims that letting go is more beneficial to the grieving process then holding onto these objects and give examples of how harmful that can be.
How I used it: I used this article as part of my rebuttal. This article game arguments as to why letting go and “decluttering” is important to the healing process. And while it might be it is important to not force yourself or anyone for that matter to hurry up and let go of objects. Whether they feel they should or not is completely up to them.
Source 10:https://balancethroughsimplicity.com/decluttering-and-grief/
Background: This article also talks about the importance of decluttering and letting go of things we don’t need or are going to use in the long run. She also talks about her own experiences and uses that to explain the whole letting go/decluttering process.
How I used it: I used it to give examples and some quotes about how she feels it could help to get rid of things and agrued against it. Although her intention wasn’t to downplay the emotions that come with letting go, she seemed like she was telling people to rush the grieving process. I argued that this is important to the grieving process when a person or family is ready to let go whether objects are useful or not.
source 11: https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/talkabout/articles/decluttering-after-someone-dies/277411
Background: This article just talked about how negative emotions could come from keeping object and tries to explain that we hold onto things because of those negative emotions. She compared getting rid of loved ones objects and spring cleaning.
How I used it: I used it to argue how minimizing that sounded to compare the two and argue against her statements about how keeping objects could make a person feel stuck. At one point she said that it just serves a reminder of something that was once there and now isn’t and that it is good to get rid of this because it could cause harm to the person trying to move on. Moving on is hard and its understable to feel negative emotion towards things left behind but these objects help people move on as well by giving them closure and a comfort space.
Background: This article further explains how Day of the Dead brings families together by creating these ofrendas/altars and isn’t just some tale told by Disney. He goes into depth of the objects used during day or the dead and the decorations and the meanings they hold and symbolize.
How I used it:I used it to explain why people make ofrendas and how it helps connect us with family who are alive and those who have passed. These ofrendas help bridge the living and the dead and the objects/food have special meaning to the people who have passed away as well as those honoring and remembering them. We pass on our memories of them to future generations and it connects us as a family and community.
Counterintuitive Fall 2024 
This was graded 10/23
You don’t really make any claims at all in your descriptions, Courage. I don’t have a clue what you have found in the sources that makes them valuable to you. And in no case have you drawn a connection between the Day of the Dead and precious objects of the departed. Is there a source that makes this connection? Has your understanding of your subject matter evolved in any way in the two months since you posted this brief proposal?
As the document develops into your ultimate Annotated Bibliography, it will not hold onto its original grade without considerable expansion and improvement. It should have been improving throughout the semester as you added sources to it, practiced your Purposeful Summaries of the material as you were reading it, . . . .
I know you think you’re explaining, but you’re really just naming more stuff, Courage. I will rewrite your work substituting actual useful claims (though I do not pretend they’re accurate).
How I used it: I used this article to help myself understand better how the celebration has changed over time
Sadly, this source helped me understand that the celebration has lost its original religious significance and is now mostly a commercial operation.
and the new and old traditions of this celebrations.
Old traditions have been replaced by anything that can turn a profit.
This article talks about how it all started
I now understand that the tradition grew out of the simple act of making small memorial shrines in the homes of survivors.
and why people found it important in not only the grieving aspect but explains why and how it honors the dead.
The Day of the Dead is a specific time of year to honor the departed as a public display of the grief that’s felt year-round in private.
I also used it to better explain all of this as well.
Nothing I can do with this one.
Explaining how the holiday can be changed and how other could join in on this special celebration.
What began as a private observance by grieving families has evolved into a nationwide celebration of lost ancestors and loved ones both known to us an unknown.
Like that, you know?
This document also lacks the needed AP-style bibliographic listings that would help your reader understand the Titles, Authors, Publications you’ve consulted, without having to follow links to find them.