'Honor Someone Tonight': Laguna Beach Woman Marks Día de los Muertos

LAGUNA BEACH, CA — Every year, Nov. 1 marks the beginning of Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, in Mexico. The tradition has carried over the border over the years, and is celebrated by swaths of Californians these days.

The holiday is commemorated by creating an offenda, the Spanish word for "offerings," which is used to reference altars built to remember and honor the dead.

Katy Parks Wilson, a Three Arch Bay and Laguna Beach resident, built her own ofrenda for the Three Arch Bay Annual Golf Cart Parade this year and submitted a photo of it to Patch.

"While I’m sure I lost out on prizes to 'Top Gun' carts, Venetian gondolas, Krispy Kremes (how do you compete with a doughnut?) and the entire Royal Family, my installation carries deep meaning," she told Patch.

On her cart, she chose to honor Taylor Hawkins, the Foo Fighters' drummer who was a Laguna Beach native; Kim Wood who spent summers in town and died suddenly of a heart attack in May; Juliette Jung, a 16-year-old who drowned trying to reach the secret pools of Thousand Steps Beach; a 29-year-old girl who was Wilson's son's first love and "another dear soul who passed after eight years battling cancer" and Queen Elizabeth, Wilson told Patch.

"Many people from the neighborhood added their honorariums with pictures and [stickers]," she said.

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