Yadira Woythal said her mom used to talk about the Day of the Dead, but her family never followed the tradition after coming to the United States.

“In Mexico they did ... but here not so much,” Woythal said.

Her family came to Illinois in 1979. After she was born in 1982, her parents were able to receive legal residency because of then-President Ronald Reagan’s amnesty program for immigrants who were in the country illegally.

On Saturday, Woythal again honored the traditions of Día de los Muertos, but now as a volunteer with the Harvard Parks Foundation.

It is the second year Harvard has put on a Day of the Dead festival as a fundraiser for the foundation, board member Scott Logan said.

It went over so well in 2024, raising more than $7,000 for Harvard parks, that the city expanded the event this year. Ayers Street was blocked off from Division to Front streets.

Logan hoped that, like the first year, more residents would come out to enjoy the music and food later into the evening.

Harvard picked the holiday as a fall festival theme because of the city’s residents. The town’s population is more than 50% Hispanic “from Mexico and further south,” Logan said.

Other towns have fall festivals organized around scarecrows or zombies, but no one else in the area was doing Day of the Dead, he said.

“There are a lot of residents who celebrate it – or their parents did,” Logan said.