Some believe that they consume the essence of the food offerings, others believe they merely sense or savor them without consuming them. It is believed that the departed return home to enjoy the offerings on the altar. Adults are thought to return on 2 November. In Mexico, children who have died, are celebrated on 1 November. Sugar skulls were not traditionally used on loved ones' ofrendas, though they are now. They are 'lighthearted emblems of death.' Thus they are not derived from sacred Mesoamerican traditions. They are: (1) ephemeral (2) seasonal (3) humorous (4) secular (5) commercial (6) made for living people (7) meant to be played with (8) small and transportable (9) made and consumed by an urban population. However, what we now call Day of the Dead is more Catholic than indigenous because the Spanish tried to eradicate indigenous religions Moreover, as Stanley Brandes has argued, these skulls and skeletons have seven characteristics. It has been argued that the tradition has roots in indigenous celebrations, by groups including the Aztec, Mayan, and Toltec commemorations. They are sometimes now used as offerings to be placed on altars known as ofrendas ('offerings') for Día de Muertos. The sugar skulls were originally created as gifts, to be eaten by children. Traditional methods for producing sugar skulls with molds have been in use for a long time, though the first known mention of the sale of skeletal figures dates to the 1740s. Sone widely known calaveras are created with cane sugar, decorated with items such as colored foil, icing, beads, and sometimes objects such as feathers. Calavera can also refer to any artistic representations of skulls or skeletons, such as those in the prints of José Guadalupe Posada, or to gifts or treats in relation to the Day of the Dead. The term is often applied to edible or decorative skulls made (usually with molds) from either sugar (called Alfeñiques) or clay, used in the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead ( Spanish: Día de Muertos) and the Roman Catholic holiday All Souls' Day. A sugar skull, a common gift for children and decoration for the Day of the Dead.Ī calavera ( Spanish – pronounced for 'skull'), in the context of Day of the Dead, is a representation of a human skull or skeleton.

Painted skull gas mask