Is a celebration that honors the deceased. The tradition holds that the spirits of the dead visit their loved ones on October 31st and leave on November 2nd resulting in a three-day festival that includes parades, family gatherings, feasts, rituals, lots of singing and dancing, art exhibitions and decorating the gravestones of loved ones. This practice originated in Mexico but occurs throughout Latin America and combines indigenous rituals with Catholic traditions.
, footpaths are lined with bright orange marigolds. Doors of houses are kept open to allow the deceased to visit their family. The color and scent of the marigolds guide the dead to their respective
(bread of the dead), which are soft, sweetened buns. Servings of the deceased person’s favorite food (when they were alive) are also offered.
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. The decorative paper represents the ‘fragility of life.’ It is said that movement of the paper during Day of the Dead signifies the arrival and presence of deceased loved ones. Paper cutting is an important folk art practiced throughout Mexico and former colonies of Spain. It’s an artform seen at many Latin American festivals.
That also bring attention to modern day issues of her country. The 2016 installation Canto de Agua (Song of Water) in Mexico City, combined the Day of the Deadofrenda(small altar) with a
: a traditional type of flat-bottomed boat. 103 trajineras were made and decorated (in collaboration with numerous Mexican artists), as offerings to commemorate those who had died during the year and to connect their deaths to social conditions and problems of Mexico City.¹ This installation was also shown in France last year.
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Los Huesos Tienen Memoria (Bones Have a Memory) 2016-2017, was dedicated to the almost 28 thousand missing persons registered by the Mexican federal government. ¹ These are just two of many examples of Romero’s work that reveals how art can be used as a powerful platform to connect traditions of the past with present day concerns.
Themed movie Coco pays homage to her! Themes of death and images of skulls and skeletons were numerous in Kahlo’s work because of a horrific accident she survived as a teenager from which she experienced health complications her entire life and several miscarriages. It was also influenced by her love of Mexican indigenous culture and custom. Did you know that Kahlo had a full-length paper mâché skeleton positioned on top of her four poster bed ?
Gather up some face paints: white + black and four different colors. Find yourself a sponge and collect a bunch of Q-tips/cotton balls. (If you don’t have any face paint, you can make your own using household ingredients.) Before you begin, apply moisturizer or sunscreen as a barrier to help protect the skin and make it easier to clean the paint off when it’s time. Be sure that the skin is clean and dry before using a sponge to dab white paint over the entire face to create a white background. Dip Q-tips into the face paint and use them to create the sugar skull features, press-on dots, and gently trace swirls across the face.
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If you’d like a little more direction, download the PDF in the Learning Library for a skull template and plan a sugar skull design on it before painting it on a ‘live canvas.’ The PDF also features a brief curated collection of QR code links that aim to spark creative ideas and to learn more about this colorful Mexican tradition.
We would love to see your creations celebrating Dia de los Muertos so please share them in our Free Art History Kids Facebook Group…click on the button belowIn the atrium of the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, behind a row of stanchions, is an array of sugar skulls ranging from the size of a gum ball to the size of a human head. Made of compressed sugar, the skulls have metallic sequins for eyes and neon icing for hair. Shiny pieces of colored hand-cut foil are stuck to the molds to create intricate detailing. According to Elvira Mondragón Garcia, each skull has a different expression that ranges from curiosity and happiness, to sadness and discomfort. “My sentiment is that a bit of me goes into its creation and whatever I’m feeling in the moment, is reflected back in its design, ” she says in Spanish.
Mondragón, a fifth-generation sugar skull maker from Toluca, Mexico, says that all of her family’s products are handmade, including the skull molds. “We’ve been approached by people who tell us they can create machinery that allows us to mass produce, ” she notes. “But we don’t want that. It removes the magic of what makes every skull special.”
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Perhaps that attention to detail is what’s allowed the Mondragón family business to endure over the past 169 years. Sugar skulls are one of the most recognizable symbols of Día de los Muertos, the Mexican holiday honoring deceased friends and relatives. Even though the holiday occurs in late fall, the family’s busy season begins in February back in Toluca. Thanks to the holiday’s growing popularity, they sell sugar skulls year round. The museum sells more than 22, 000 of the Mondragón sugar skulls annually, and it is the sole source of income for Elvira and her three siblings.
The sugar skulls are reminders of a long history that can be traced back to the Aztec empire. Celebrations honoring the underworld and its inhabitants “could be found in Mexico well before the European invasion, ” says Delia Cosentino, an associate professor of art history and architecture at DePaul University who specializes in the visual culture of Mexico, in an email.
“While sugar was a colonial introduction, the Aztecs made edible sculptures out of amaranth, corn, and honey, ” she says. “In the U.S., the sugar skull has perhaps become the single most familiar icon [of Día de los Muertos], as aspects of the tradition are increasingly embraced—and for better or for worse, commercialized.”
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Mondragón is the first to admit the process is hard and, at times, even dangerous work. However, she takes pride in being a modern-day sugar skull maker, knowing it’s a tradition handed down by her ancestors.
The process begins with the family making clay molds to form the sugar skulls. The clay form is placed in a stone oven for three full days to set, and to remove the naturally occurring and toxic
Or lead, from its cast. The mold is then tested by pouring the sugar mix into it. If the sugar skull is easily removed from the mold, no lead remains. Lead in the mold creates a vacuum that causes the sugar to stick to its form. If any piece clings to the form, it indicates the presence of lead. If that’s the case, it is returned to the oven for another 24 hours to melt any remaining trace of the element.
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The sugar skull recipe poured into the molds is easy enough to make and Mondragón offers it up willingly. It’s equal parts sugar, water, and a splash of lemon juice, brought to a boil in a large copper pot. Because of the high temperature and large quantity of the mixture, children are kept away from the perilous process. Instead, they’re tasked with decorating or cutting pieces of foil.
When pressed for the amount of time the concoction needs to be heated for, Mondragón’s only answer is that she can tell “by the size and consistencies of the bubbles.” She explains that her family has been doing it for so long that they eye these details, not the time, to ensure the process is complete. If boiled for too long, the mixture caramelizes. Not enough time on the fire and the mix won’t hold, causing the skull to melt.
Though the small, apple-sized skulls are one of her most popular sellers, the life-sized version is what a Mexican family typically purchases. Each skull, engraved with a family name, is then placed on the
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At the end of the holiday, the skull is taken from the ofrenda and broken into pieces to be distributed and consumed.
And how does Mondragón, whose own father passed away earlier this year, deal with the reminder of death on a daily basis? She says it’s not too hard. “If you don’t acknowledge a person’s death, it’s like they didn’t live. We are not celebrating their death, we are remembering their life.”
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Facts About Día De Los Muertos (the Day Of The Dead)
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