

During Los Dias de Los Muertos you will see a huge variety of edible sugar skulls. Day of the Dead SkullsĬalavera in Mexico can mean one of three things. These days La Catrina has come to represent the Day of the Dead and the images of her and other skeletons are now an art form in Mexico. In societal terms, it was also a new way of looking at class and wealth within a society that was rapidly changing. The thought is that we are all really just a bag of bones beneath our fancy clothes and that the rich have nothing on the rest of us. So the Catrina was used to symbolize the differences between the upper and lower classes. The culture of La Calavera Catrina is also politically inclined as it has ties to The Porfirio Diaz regime, whose accomplishments include modernizing Mexico in spite of the existing governments’ repressions and corruption. La Catrina has been given a body and a very expensive outfit it is believed Rivera depicted Calavera this way to indicate that death applies to all of us including the rich. The mural portrays over 400 years of Mexican history and it includes Posada, Frida Kahlo and himself. The name La Calavera Catrina is derived from Diego Rivera’s work Dream of a Sunday afternoon along Central Alameda. Posadas’s most famous etching is of La Calavera Catrina who has become an icon in Mexico representing the Dia De Los Muertos. Calavera etchings were generally of women because in Mexico death is portrayed as a woman (la Muerte). Of course, the Calaveras were usually the servant girl wearing cast-off clothes. Posada was the first to sketch the skeletons wearing contemporary clothes and become part of the day to day scenes’ that portrayed the upper-class Mexican.

Meaning of the Dia de los Muertos Calaveras When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
AUTHENTIC DIA DE LOS MUERTOS DECORATIONS FULL
Skulls (calaveras) or full skeletons, made from paper mache, clay, or an edible substance such as sugar, chocolate, or amaranth.Incense or copal, a resin that produces an aromatic smoke when burned.Papel picado, traditional cut tissue paper decorations, in bright colors.Other flowers, usually purple and white, are also common. Flowers, especially bright yellow-orange (a species of marigold), which is the flower most associated with this day.Candles, often one for each family member.
