Spanish IV classes celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in class on Jan. 10.
Due to timing issues last semester, the classes were unable to celebrate the feast day on Dec. 12.
Teachers Tracy Chapelle and Katie Hayes have celebrated this tradition for the past six years.
“Every Spanish level watched a different video, but one year I just thought [being a department chair] we really needed to do something to celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe,” Chapelle said. “We weren’t doing her justice.”
The department decided to create a party for the Spanish IV classes, giving them an active celebration rather than just watching the videos.
Now the classes celebrate over the course of two days, the first day learning about the importance of what they will do, and the second day actively doing what they learned the previous day.
“My favorite part was getting to experience the culture and participate in it instead of just learning about it in the classroom,” senior Anna Armstrong said.
The students crawled on their knees from the Campus Ministry office to the chapel entrance, symbolizing the journey some make on their knees at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico.
Students then brought paper roses with personal intentions written on them to the front of the chapel, said a decade of the rosary in Spanish, listened to a testimony from Sr. Guadalupe DeWispelare and sang “La Guadalupana.”
DeWispelare has given her testimony for the past three years and has been a big part of the celebration.
“I think Mary is so important because of the relationship we can have with her,” she said.
After their time in the chapel, they went back to their classrooms and ate various breads from Pan Dulce Bakery while coloring pictures of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The two teachers noticed that this year students seemed to be very expressive with their gratitude for the work that the teachers did for their parties.
“This year I felt like people were extra grateful and told us, so that was really cool to hear,” Hayes said.
