Los Dias de los Muertos/The Mexican Days of the Dead

Think, Pair, Share…Just what is Dia de los Muertos? What I know about

Dia de los Muertos.

What I would like to know about Dia de los Muertos.

What is the Mexican Day of the Dead? Is it a spooky

holiday like Halloween and full of ghosts and ghouls?

What is the Mexican Day of the Dead?

No, it is a time for remembrance. Friends, families and relatives gather to honor and remember their loved ones who have passed.

It is not a day of sadness but a day of celebration.

What is the Mexican Day of the Dead?

Although it occurs close to Halloween, the holidays are very different.

Dia de los Muertos dates back almost 3,000 years to the indigenous Aztec people of Mexico.

Halloween: October 31st

Dia de los Muertos: Nov 1st and 2nd

What is the Mexican Day of the Dead? On November 1st

and 2nd, families participate in celebrations that honor their passed family members, including visiting and decorating graves, constructing ofrendas, and preparing sweet sugar skulls.

Mexican families save all year to buy the flowers, candles, incense, and special foods needed to properly honor their dearly departed. They participate in the construction and decoration of ofrendas (home tabletop displays or altars) to honor their loved ones.

Ofrenda

Decorations for the ofrenda may include candles, flowers, incense, cut paper banners, photographs, pictures of saints and the Virgin of Guadalupe, and offerings of the favorite food and drink of the deceased.

This ofrenda includes apicture of the person being honored, their favorite food, flowers, candles, and religious statues.

In preparation for the fiesta, tombs and gravestones in the cemeteries are cleaned, freshly-painted, and elaborately decorated by the members of the community with candles, flowers, breads, fruits, and other objects.

Isn’t Dia de los Muertos only celebrated in Mexico?

What is the Mexican Day of the Dead?

Actually, the tradition is celebrated all over South and Central America, as well as all over the US.

Tucson has a popular observance of the holiday that includes the All Souls Procession.

30,00 people participate in this annual parade downtown.

What is the Mexican Day of the Dead?

What is the Mexican Day of the Dead? But wait!! Isn’t the

Day of the Dead about scary skulls and other creepy things???

What is the Mexican Day of the Dead?

Yes and no…

Candies and toys are made in the shape of calaveras (skulls and skeletons). The skeleton or skull is seen as a promise of resurrection, not as a symbol of death.

Calavera toys and papier-mache skeleton figures depict specific professions, musicians, brides and grooms, bicycle riders, and other subjects from everyday life.

Calavara: Skulls and Skeletons

Sugar Skulls Called "calaveras de

azúcar" in Spanish, these sugary sweets are sold everywhere on the days and weeks leading up to Day of the Dead.

Sugar Skulls

Market stalls are lined with rows and rows of colorful skulls, created from sugar and decorated with multi-colored icing,

shiny foil, sequins and glitter.

Sugar Skulls Sugar skulls are

given as gifts to both the living and the dead, often with the name of the recipient written on the skull's forehead in icing.

Sugar Skull design elements

How would you describe the design elements of the popular sugar skull using:

Symmetry? Pattern? Color? Repetition?

Sugar Skull design elements

SymmetryPatternColor Repetition

Sugar Skulls

Symmetrical Design

Color schemes

Composition