Needs a Flipping Title

It is important to understand why people keep and cherish things from their loved ones who have passed, as it is a common practice. It is important because it helps us connect with the people we cherish who are still with us as well. It helps us empathize with them and their connections with their loved ones. In this discussion, I will focus on one way that people connect with their loved ones through past memories and momentums. To me, it is important that people understand these connections while finding a way to connect with their loved ones in a way they maybe didn’t know how through other cultures. I will be exploring and defining ways that other cultures like to memorialize and stay connected with their passed loved ones.

LOOK BACK AT THE ROBUST VERBS EXERCISE TO SEE
HOW I FEEL ABOUT “THERE IS” AND “IT IS” OPENINGS.

While there are many different ways to keep loved ones close to us it is always important to remember them any way you can, even if you don’t have something of theirs that you can physically cherish. One way that is famous and well known is through a holiday and celebration also known as Day of the Dead. There are many routes to honoring your loved ones and one way is through the artistic route beginning with Sugar skulls. It is a very common practice to write the name of your loved ones on a personalized sugar skull of your choice, whether you made it/decorated it yourself or not, to show that they are still with you at least in memory.

Skeletons are also a big part of this celebration as it is used as the representation of the loved one. Although in more Western countries it is seen as scary or creepy, in Mexican culture it is seen as a beautiful way to represent them. typically some way of representing them is by dressing them up almost like your loved ones whether it be in a dress or some type of hat, or holding an instrument that they play or drink, and in some cases even their favorite toys or little things that you can remember about them. Those are just some examples of representing them on this special day. It is also important that they have their favorite foods or a meal to show that they are welcome to come back to you and even stay for a nice meal.

Although this is a Mexican-originated holiday, it does not restrict other people from celebrating it as we are all looking for a way to keep our loved ones close to us. In fact, many other cultures celebrate it too using different names but using the same form of celebration. This holiday is for everyone and it helps bring together many communities and many people who are just looking for that connection.

THESE ARE References, not Sources.
Center the word References. NOT BOLD. NOT CAPS. NO PUNCTUATION.

Brandes, S. (1997). Sugar, Colonialism, and Death: On the Origins of Mexico’s Day of the Dead. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 39(2), 270–299. http://www.jstor.org/stable/179316

Brandes, S. (1998). Iconography in Mexico’s Day of the Dead: Origins and Meaning. Ethnohistory, 45(2), 181–218. https://doi.org/10.2307/483058

YOU DIDN’T CITE EITHER OF THESE SOURCES,
SO THEY DON’T BELONG IN YOUR References list.