Standing before an altar decorated with flowers and paper skeletons, Everardo Tapia, member of the Mexican American Student Association (MASA), popped a jalapeño pepper into his mouth.

"They're delicious," he said with a smile.

The peppers and a variety of other traditional Mexican foods were on display at the HUB-Robeson Center yesterday as part of MASA's recognition of Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican holiday "Day of the Dead."

Roberto Lopez, vice president of MASA, said the holiday is celebrated by families as a way to commemorate those who have passed on.

"On the second of November, either they set up an altar or they go to the cemetery," he said.

Lopez said the favorite foods of the person being commemorated are placed on the altar, and that in some parts of central Mexico, including where he was from, families eat a meal where their relatives are buried.

"Can you imagine going to a cemetery and eating a meal there?" he asked. "It was kind of strange, but it's a tradition."

Gonzalo Cano, president of MASA, said his family recognized the holiday at home.

"We set up an altar for my grandpa," he said. "I was raised with this tradition."

Cano said MASA created the Dia de los Muertos display to help educate Penn State about the holiday.

"The Day of the Dead in the United States gets a lot of stereotypes," he said. "People in the U.S. think it's a creepy holiday."

Foods on display at the HUB included Mole poblano, a sauce made of chocolate and spices; nopales, essentially a peeled prickly pear cactus; and pan de muerto, or "bread of the dead," which Lopez said is shaped in a manner to represent the bones of a person.

Yasmin Villuendas, a Spanish instructor, brought a class to the display to give them a visual representation of the holiday. "This is very nice," she said. "The students really went out of their way making the special bread."

One of her students, Kelli Breslin (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) took a milk candy wafer from the display. "They said it was made out of goat milk," she said. "It sounds gross, but it looks really good."

Lopez demonstrated the balero, a traditional Mexican game consisting of a wooden cylinder connected by a string to a stick. The object is to impale the cylinder on the tip of the stick.

On his first try, Lopez accomplished the task, though he failed on subsequent attempts to repeat the feat.

"It's hours of fun," he said.

Jonathan Lijtszain, a member of MASA, said he liked the spirit of the holiday.

"I think it's good; it's good to remember the dead at least once a year, not with sorrow, but with happiness," he said.