Washington, D.C. - The Smithsonian Latino Center will celebrate the Day of the Dead with a three-day online event. The festival will be held October 31 to November 2 in the Latino Virtual Museum in Second Life. This year’s Día de los Muertos festival will feature ofrendas to late Mexican singer Chavela Vargas, actress Lupe Ontiveros and artist Carlos Alonzo.

The online commemoration of Día de los Muertos will also be enhanced with social media. Visitors will have the opportunity to tweet messages and offerings during the ceremony, which will be delivered in the Nahuatl language.

"This year’s festival allows visitors to create a virtual presence with their avatars and to engage in the spirit of this culturally significant celebration by sharing their offerings with a global audience via Twitter," said Melissa Carrillo, Latino Center director of New Media and Technology. "This celebration continues to grow in popularity, which is evidenced by more than 11,000 visits to our online festival last year."

The Smithsonian Latino Center ensures Latino contributions to arts, sciences and the humanities are highlighted, understood and advanced through the development and support of public programs, scholarly research, museum collections and educational opportunities at the Smithsonian Institution and its affiliated organizations across the United States.