(A typical Day of the Dead market)
For decorations, they often have self made alters (ofrendas) in their home and they decorate this with items such as candles, a variety of different flowers, fruit, tortillas and a Day of the Dead bread called pan de muerto. The alters have to be heavily covered in decorations in order to attract the spirits of their relatives. Lots of toys and sweets are left out for the children and on November 2nd, cigarettes and alcohol are put out for the adult spirits. Other decorations include Skeletons and Sugar Skulls which are bought at markets in the town.
(images of typical ofrendas)
(Day of the Dead bread - pan de muerto)
This holiday is very expensive for the families and they can usually spend up to two months wages on it to honour their dead relatives. They try and make it as welcoming as possible as they people believe that happy spirits give good protection, good luck and also wisdom to their families. To end the celebration, on November 2nd in the afternoon, the families head to the cemetery where they will play card games, they will usually have a band that will play music and they will talk and remember their loved ones. All of this is very important in small towns as keeping the tradition keeps the village close.
(This is a baker who lives in northern Veracruz with a giant banana leaf-wrapped tamale which will feed over 100 people on the Day of the Dead festival)
This tradition is starting to become popular in the US sugar skull and skeleton figures and designs everywhere and majority of people recreating this design for a halloween look. Thousands of chocolate sugar skulls are hand made and sold every year at the Sugar Skull Fair in Mexico. They start working around 4-6 months previous to the event to make sure they have enough merchandise to sell. Some of these are eaten but majority of them are used to place on the alter for show as s sugary treat for the spirits. They start off with mini sugar skulls for the children on November 1st and then replaced with bigger sized ones on November 2nd for the adults.
Sugar Skull Tradition
The traditions of Sugar Skulls started with sugar art being brought to the New World by the Italian in the 17th century. The first time sugar art was ever mentioned by the church was when sugar lambs and angels were made to be put on the alters in the Catholic Church at Easter time in Palermo.
Mexico at the time was too poor to buy expensive imported European church decorations and so they learned how to make their own sugar art for their festivals. They started by making clay models of designs and figures such as angels, sheep and sugar skulls. The sugar skull had a meaning of a 'departed soul' meaning that the sugar skull represented a person that the family had lost. On the forehead of the sugar skull, the name of the person was written on to remember them, this ornament was then placed on the ofrenda in the house on display for everyone to see. As the years have passed, the more decorative and creative sugar skulls have began to look. The skulls used to be something that was created by skilled artists but now they are mass produced which worries some people as they think that the the making of sugar skulls is now a dying art form.
Sugar Skulls can look completely different, you can have just a typical skull looking one or you can be very creative and have a face completely covered in patterns, colours and designs. This tradition is becoming a very popular makeup style now.
The images above are both taken from James Bond films. The first one is from the new Spectre film (2015) and the one on the right is from Live and Let Die (1973). You can see in the older version that the makeup style has been incorporated from a sugar skull, this one is a bit more basic as it doesn't have colours and crazy patterns on it but this is where the idea would have come from. The image on the left is a slight bit more decorative with it covering the whole face instead of half, it also includes some detail on the teeth. It is interesting to see different recreations of a design and how they have changed it to make it their own.
This is a vodka bottle which has taken inspiration from a skull design. I think it's really cool and interesting and I like the idea behind it. It may not necessarily have taken inspiration from a sugar skull but with the recent popularity of sugar skulls it wouldn't be surprising that this new vodka bottle did use that for inspiration. The writing below is describing the product and says that it has taken inspiration from crystal skulls from the Aztec era.
This is another version of a vodka skull bottle. This one looks more like a sugar skull and you can tell this was the inspiration behind the making of this bottle. It's fairly plain as it's just in black and white and doesn't contain any other colour but I think it's really interesting.
This is a creation done by Alex Box. It isn't a sugar skull but it still is a skull and I like how she has come up with this creation. She has painted the eyes, nose, mouth and cheeks black and then places a mask which has been covered in crystals over the face. I like the effect of having the smoke blowing out the mouth.
Purple is one of my favourite colours and I also really like diamonds on a sugar skull design as I think it looks more detailed and creative. I like how this girl has added an extra design of a spider web on her forehead.
This is my favourite design so far. Blue is my favourite colour so automatically I was drawn to this image. Again, I like the spider web and the detail around the eyes and I really like the little lotus flower on her chin.
This is a sugar skull created by Alex Box. You can see how precise each and every line is. The detail in this makeup design literally blows you away.
One of my favourite makeup artists, Jamie Genevieve. I really love the colours in this design and how she has perfectly blended the colours. I also like the effect of doing two photos with a mirror effect. This style is slightly more basic than the others but I still really like it.
These images are just some examples of sugar skull makeup. There are literally millions of different designs and ideas you could try. That's what I love the most about makeup, the fact that you can take inspiration from others but still have a unique idea that's original to you.
Sources:
http://www.mexicansugarskull.com/support/dodhistory.html
http://www.art-is-fun.com/mexican-sugar-skull/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3171450/Haven-t-met-Mr-Bond-Spectres-past-trailer-007-s-200m-new-movie.html
http://www.selfridges.com/GB/en/cat/crystal-head-vodka-vodka-1750ml_414-87209594-CRYSTALHEAD175CL/?cm_mmc=PLA-_-Google-_-Foodhall-_-CRYSTALHEADVODKA&ci_src=18615224&ci_sku=10783009&_$ja=tsid:35948%7Ccid:196730614%7Cagid:10765184974%7Ctid:kwd-57655754340%7Ccrid:39739644334%7Cnw:g%7Crnd:7354170267780393224%7Cdvc:c%7Cadp:1o5&gclid=CjwKEAjwh8exBRDyyqqH9pvf1ncSJAAu4OE3RAetyRRRJHxxObp_YZATnpKlMZFnJhYbojySoW2i0xoC4X3w_wcB
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