KENNEWICK — When Spanish teacher Cody Booth suggested students bring a photo of a loved one for a class altar for Día de los Muertos, Tanner Newman knew exactly which one to bring.

On Thursday, as the 14-year-old’s classmates finished hanging colorful paper and tissue on a counter in the Kennewick High School classroom, Tanner taped a photo of himself as a young boy on the lap of his grandfather, who died six years ago.

“He was pretty much my best friend,” said Tanner, a freshman.

Thursday marks the Day of the Dead, a memorial holiday that is particularly prevalent in southern Mexico. Kennewick High Spanish teachers and students marked the day learning about the holiday’s customs and traditions.

Some students said it helped them dispel negative emotions associated with death.

“Honestly, in America, we overlook the importance of it,” said freshman Anna Hall, 14.

Activities varied among the students. Lower-level students focused on crafting some of the items common for the holiday, such as paper models of skeletal puppets or paper marigolds or creating sugar skulls to decorate altars.

Students who made altars took different approaches. While Booth’s students honored their own loved ones, the fourth- and fifth-year Spanish students under Teresa Urrego dedicated theirs to public figures who had died.

And a few decided to make an altar for political figures who still are alive, something Urrego is doing as a political statement in Mexico.

Seniors Yuritzi Guillen, Harnoor Mahal, Jesse Magana and Ximena Ortega decided to build an altar to Selena Quintanilla, the popular Latin singer who was murdered in 1995. On Thursday, they brought framed photos, plastic flowers and trays for the food and drinks that Selena liked.

“She liked Coke a lot,” Harnoor said.

Day of the Dead is not new to all the students. Ximena and Jesse spoke of family members in Mexico who celebrate the holiday.

And Yuritzi’s family will visit her grandmother’s grave today, tidying it up and leaving behind flowers and other items she enjoyed.

Urrego said that while the holiday comes right after Halloween and uses skulls and skeletons, something often viewed as macabre in the U.S., Día de los Muertos is more about memorializing and honoring those who’ve died.

It also reflects different attitudes toward death between Latin American and mainstream American cultures. While Americans see death as a bad thing and places such as cemeteries as dark, depressing places, in Mexico death is viewed as part of life and the graves of loved ones can be the scenes of festive celebrations when the living remember them.

“For us in the U.S., we fear it, but there, they laugh at it,” Urrego said.

Students who aren’t from a Latino background said learning about the holiday has helped them better understand their friends who are.

It also has showed them the need to remember the dead, not just mourn them. Sophomore Reiley Wooten brought in a picture of her friend Tristan Fortune, killed in an accident eight years ago, to put on the altar.

“I wish we’d do something more like this,” the 15-year-old said.