Sugar Skulls

Dia de los Muertos - Day of the Dead

October 31 - November 2

The Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico, in particular the Central and Southern regions, also by Mexican ancestry in other places of the world. Day of the Dead is observed by the Hispanic population and it is significant in the remembrance of friends and family who have died. The multi-day holiday focuses on friends and family praying for and celebrating the lives of those who have passed, many families celebrate by creating sugar skulls for their loved ones.

The Sugar Skull

Sugar art was brought to the New World by Italian missionaries in the 17th century. Mexico, abundant in sugar production and too poor to buy fancy imported European decorations, learned quickly from the friars how to make sugar art for their religious festivals. Clay molded sugar figures of angels, sheep and sugar skulls go back to the Colonial Period 18th century. Sugar skulls represented a departed soul, had a name written on the forehead and was placed on the gravestone to honor the return of that particular spirit during Dia de los Muertos.