Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources Reading Comprehension Worksheets Hispanic Heritage

Day of the Dead Hispanic Heritage

---

Day of the Dead
Print Day of the Dead Reading Comprehension with Fifth Grade Work

Print Day of the Dead Reading Comprehension with Sixth Grade Work

Print Day of the Dead Reading Comprehension

Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 5 to 7
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	6.45

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		gravesite, muerto, teaching, gravesites, compromise, generally, celebration, socialize, attend, rather, ritual, death, altar, natural, member, early
	content words:		All Hallows Eve

---

Day of the Dead By Jane Runyon

---

¹     It may seem rather strange to some people to have a day for dead people. It isn't strange at all to people of Hispanic heritage. You should know that this celebration started hundreds of years ago with the Aztecs. They devoted a whole month to the "Lady of the Dead." It took place during what is now the last half of July and the first half of August. It was a time when they remembered the children who had died.
 
²     When Spanish priests came to Mexico, they tried to make changes in this celebration. The first thing they did was to cut the ritual down to two days. They tried to move the days to the same time as All Hallows Eve. You might recognize this day as Halloween. The Mexican natives weren't too thrilled about turning their celebration into a Catholic celebration. A compromise was reached and Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, is now celebrated on the first two days of November.
 
³     The celebration has combined a bit of the early traditions with some of the Christian features the priests were teaching. Mexicans do not treat this day as a sad day. They use it as a way to celebrate the lives of those who have left them.

Paragraphs 4 to 8:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

---

Weekly Reading Books

Create Weekly Reading Books Prepare for an entire week at once!

---

Feedback on Day of the Dead

Leave your feedback on Day of the Dead   (use this link if you found an error in the story)

---

Hispanic Heritage

Hispanic Heritage

---

United States

United States

American Government         Black History and Blacks in U.S. History         Children in History         Government Careers         Hispanic Heritage         How Can I Help?

Immigration         National Parks and Monuments         Native Americans         Presidents of the United States         Women's History

---

United States History

A Nation Divided (1840-1861)         A New Nation (1776-1830)         After the Civil War (1865-1870)         American Revolution         Cold War (1947-1991)         Colonial America (1492-1776)         Lewis and Clark (1804-1806)         Pearl Harbor         Spanish American War (1898)         The 1890's         The 1900's         The 1910's         The 1920's         The 1930's

The 1940's         The 1950's         The 1960's         The 1970's         The 1980's         The 1990's         The 2000's         The Civil War (1861-1865)         The Great Depression (1929-1945)         The United States Grows (1865-1900)         The War of 1812         Wild, Wild West         World War I (1914-1918)         World War II

---

50 States

Fifty States Theme Unit

---

Document Based Activities

Document Based Activities

Copyright © 2025 edHelper