Día de los muertos is celebrated in Mexico on the first and second of November and the country is filled with skeleton decorations called Calacas in Spanish. Mexican academics have different views on whether the celebration is dating back to the pre-Hispanic Mayans and Aztecs and were integrated with the European customs or if it is simply an adaptation from the Medieval European All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day. Traditions that are observed on the same days in Europe, especially in Catholic Southern Europe where altars were made for the dead and sweets and breads were eaten in the shape of skulls and bones.

The celebrations in Mexico have however transformed into something typically Mexican and in 2008 it was made into a Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

During the Day of the Dead families make “ofrendas” for their deceased loved ones containing pictures and memorabilia of the dead along with their favorite food and drinks as a tribute. The ofrendas are also decorated with sugar skulls, calacas, Mexican marigold and papel picado (delicately cut out colored tissue paper).

Since Día de los muertos is a day to remember everything about the ones you loved it is more of a happy celebration of the dead rather than a sad reminiscing. This is why you will find decorations with skeletons doing everyday things like riding a bike, dancing or drinking. Why should people stop doing what they loved just because they turn into skeletons?

The pictures and sculptures of skeletons became incredibly popular in the early 1900s thanks to a political cartoonist called José Guadalupe Posada. He used calacas and calaveras (skeletons) for his political and cultural critiques. His most famous character is La Calavera Catrina, a satirical portrait of a Mexican aspiring to look like a European aristocrat.