DAY 17

ART AROUND THE WORLD

Those Lovely Bones

CELEBRATING THE DEAD IN MEXICO

Imagine planning all year for a holiday devoted to communicating with and celebrating the deceased! With a rich history dating back more than 500 years, the art forms of the Mexican holiday the Day of the Dead, or El Día de los Muertos, are at once respectful of the dead and laced with humor. The Mexican celebration occurs on November 1 (All Saints’ Day) and November 2 (All Souls’ Day) and evolved from a 12^th-century Aztec festival dedicated to the deity Mictecacihuatl, or Lady of the Underworld, who guarded the bones of the deceased. After encounters with 15^th-century Spanish explorers, the pre-Columbian traditions merged with Catholic rituals and the modern-day festival developed.

The most recognizable symbol of the holiday is the skull, or calavera. Sugar skulls, decorated with colored icings and inscribed with the recipient’s name and pan de muerto—sweet egg bread twisted to resemble bones—are left at gravesites, on the family altar, or given as gifts to loved ones. Masks, or calacas, and costumes made for the holiday are decorated to resemble bones. Drawings, etchings, and papier maché sculptures of Catrina, the skeletal figure of a high-society woman popularized by early 20^th-century printmaker José Guadalupe Posada, comically remind us that death comes to everyone. With the celebratory tone that permeates the food, art, and culture of the festival, the boundaries between the living and the dead seem to temporarily blur. —SBR

Doll created in celebration of Mexico’s Day of the Dead.