Sugar Skull Market

In downtown Metepec last weekend we happened across the local "sugar skulls" market. Mexicans don't trick or treat. They set up ofrendas for Day of the Dead. These 'offering tables' are covered with flowers, food, drinks, pictures, and candy.



Mexicans make candy coffins and skulls to celebrate the holiday. No candy pumpkins or candy corn, though, and no leaves.



Dia de los Muertos is a popular Mexican holiday. Americans think that it's "Mexican Halloween" and in some ways, that's true. Both Halloween and Day of the Dead were the result of European Christian Saint's Day celebrations on November 1st. Like everything American (continent, not country) the result looked nothing like the original. The difference is that the U.S. has a mixed international immigrant heritage and that Mexico has an indigenous heritage; that difference is reflected in their holidays.