Fabric of the Week - Sugar Skulls
Posted on: 06/05/2015
Fabric of the Week - Sugar Skulls
This Week's Fabric of the Week is our NEW Sugar Skulls - Grey! In celebration of our new Cotton Jersey Fabrics, Sugar Skulls - Grey has an interesting story behind it...
Day of the Dead is celebrated in Central and Southern Mexico on November 1st and 2nd.
They believe that on October 31st, the gates of heaven are opened and all the spirits of deceased children are allowed to come back and reunite with their families for 24 hours on November 1st, and adult spirits on November 2nd. On the afternoon of Nov. 2, the festivities are taken to the cemetery. People clean tombs, play cards, listen to the village band and reminisce about their loved ones. Although 'Day of the Dead' sounds spooky, it's a happy and joyous festivity all about celebrating the life of past relatives through art, cooking, and music.
Beautiful altars are made in each home in most Indian villages. They are often decorated with candles, buckets of flowers, mounds of fruit, peanuts, plates of turkey mole, stacks of tortillas and big Day-of-the-Dead breads called pan de muerto. Toys and sweets are left for the children, and Little folk art skeletons and sugar skulls, purchased at open-air markets, provide the final touches.
In the 17th Century, Sugar art was first introduced when it was brought to the New World by Italian missionaries.
Sugar Skulls are beautifully decorated representations of a human skull. To honour the return of a particular spirit, each Sugar Skull symbolised a departed soul, they often had the name written across the forehead and were placed at the front of the home or gravestone.
Sugar Skulls are bright and beautiful, decorated with big, happy smiles, glitter, and different patterns made with colourful icing.
