This two-part curriculum unit includes 20 slides depicting Days of the Dead in Mexico and the United States. The unit is designed to help middle school students compare customs and practices associated with death throughout the world in a way that promotes understanding of the values and needs that produce and are reinforced by death rituals and burial customs. The lesson structure provides a setting for students to express and understand their own needs and feelings regarding death customs in the context of a universal human experience. In "Part One: Views on Death," activities are designed to increase student knowledge of death and burial customs, form and evaluate generalizations about the purposes and various functions of death-related practices, and examine attitudes toward death as evidence of what people value in life. "Part Two: Days of the Dead - Dias de Los Muertos" encourages students to examine Mexican, and other cultural attitudes toward death. The Days of the Dead celebrate death in an open joyous, festive way. These interdisciplinary lessons employ art making experiences, food preparation, language arts activities, and field trip experiences to facilitate student understanding of this celebratory cultural expression. Each section provides a bibliography for further research. Reproducible student handouts are provided. (MM)