Celebrate Memorial Day in November? 

If you live in Mexico and much of Latin America you do.  It's called Dia de los Muertos.  Day of the Dead in English.  And it's not just one day.  It's SEVEN days of cultural tradition filled with color and music and dancing and love.

This article from ORIGIN MEXICO gives a moving list of what is celebrated each day.  

For a list of 15 facts, try THIS article from Good Housekeeping.

And if you REALLY want a deep dive, try a book: Mexico's Day of the Dead, by Luisa Navarro.

The holiday's roots run deep.  Very deep.  3000 years deep.

Indigenous peoples of Meso-America have celebrated their deceased loved ones in ways not unrecognizable to those who celebrate a traditional Dia de los Muertos.  Altars, offerings of food, incense, meant to celebrate death as a part of the cycle of life.  

Once upon a time, the holiday was celebrated during the summer.

Then, soon after Columbus's voyages, the Spaniards and their brand of Christianity arrived on the scene.

Instead of completely eradicating the traditions of the native people, the Spaniard governors and priests adopted them.  They changed one significant thing, though. 

When. 

Instead of summer, the holiday came to be celebrated alongside the Catholic All Saints and All Souls Days on November 1st and 2nd.  

Today, a traditional Dia de los Muertos celebration involves family and friends gathering to talk about, remember, and celebrate deceased ancestors, loved ones, and friends who, it is believed, emerge from the afterlife as spirits to visit those they love. 

Celebrants erect memorial ofrendas (memorial altars) in their homes and at cemeteries that include photographs and incense and flowers (usually marigolds), as well as personal items, drinks, food, and candies that the dead person enjoyed while alive.  

Our American Memorial Day isn't quite so different.  Interestingly, Memorial Day was established to remember and honor fallen soldiers, and officially that is still it's purpose.  But we, as Americans, have made it something bigger.  We use Memorial Day to remember all our deceased loved ones.  We gather at cemeteries where grandma tells stories about her grandmother to wide-eyed children.  We collectively spend millions on chrysanthemums.  We decorate our loved ones' graves with toys and wind chimes and pinwheels. My uncle's grave would fit right into Dia de los Muertos.  My cousins keep his grave stocked with his favorite things--like Diet Coke and fishing lures. 

One of the most recognizable features of the Dia de los Muertos celebration is the Sugar Skull.  They've become hugely popular in our American culture.  We, right alongside our Hispanic neighbors, decorate our homes with them, particularly at Halloween.  But do you know what they mean?  

In the Hispanic tradition, skulls and skeletons aren't meant to be scary.  They're a natural representation of death as a part of the circle of life.  As part of the Dia de los Muertos celebration, they bake skull-shaped breads, wear skull masks or face paint, and decorate with papel picado, or cut paper, often depicting skulls.

The colorfully decorated skulls--always smiling--whether actually made of sugar or not, have come to be known as sugar skulls, because they're often actually made of sugar, or are coated with sugar.  Small skulls made of solid pressed sugar are often placed on the ofrendas as gifts to deceased children.  Larger skulls are only coated with sugar--a reminder of the sweetness and fragility of life.   Sugar skulls are shown smiling broadly, because death is not an end, and love endures beyond the grave.

As it turns out, they're pretty fun to color, too.

So, to honor our Hispanic friends and neighbors, and to get in on the joy of celebrating Dia de los Muertos, we've created this brand new Sugar Skull Coloring Poster!  

We hope you love it as much as we do.

 

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*Images generated using AI.