One of the most iconic and colourful items you’ll see during Day of the Dead festivities is the sugar skull, or calavera.
These skulls can come in all sorts of sizes. They’re made of sugar and decorated with icing to be fun and colourful. And they taste like candy!
Some even have things like feathers, glitter and hats attached to personalize them.
Are sugar skulls scary?
Unlike the skulls you see at Halloween, sugar skulls aren’t scary. They’re happy, colourful and smiling.
These skulls are meant to show the joy and happy memories you remember when you think of a lost loved one.
People will also paint their faces to look like a sugar skull to celebrate the holiday.
Are the sugar skull designs special?
Photo by Juan Carlos licensed CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Sugar skull designs can be creative and extravagant. Skilled artists even have design competitions!
Every year, the Mexican city of Toluca hosts a Day of the Dead festival. Hundreds of artists bring handmade decorated sugar skulls to try and win a prize for best skull candy.
Make your own sugar skull mask
Download and print out our PDF template and you can colour in and make your own sugar skull mask just like the ones pictured below.
