Mexican day of the Dead History
The celebration of the Day of the Dead – which is actually a week of celebration which begin on 28 October and end with a national holiday on 2 November. During this period, the belief is that the dead are able to visit friends and relatives on earth and enjoy the pleasures of life. To encourage this, Mexicans adorn graves with brilliantly colourful flowers and offerings. The period is specifically a joyous celebration of life, rather than a sober mourning of its passing.
Sugar skulls are literally that – skull shaped decorations made of sugar and elaborated covered with brightly coloured designs. Sugar skull face paint has now become a popular fancy dress option due to its relative simplicity and the great thing about all Mexican Day of the Dead fancy dress costumes or party decorations is that it is low cost and relatively easy to achieve a really effective result.
Mexican day of the Dead Decorations
Basically think Mexican fiesta with a Halloween twist, so you can use or make brightly coloured flowers, bunting and tissue decorations etc with a few skulls thrown in for good measure. For example, you could combine these bright
Mexican fiesta bunting,
flower fans,
tissue garland and
Halloween lanterns and reuse all of them for other parties throughout the year
Mexican Fiesta Day of the Dead Bunting | Party Packs
Mexican Fiesta Day of the Dead Brightly Coloured Fans | Party Packs
Day of the Dead Fancy Dress Ideas
The same applies for the fancy dress; it’s basically Mexican clothing, so long, loose and bright dresses and skirts with flowered headbands for the girls and white shirts, black trousers plus ponchos, sombreros or top hats and red neckerchiefs for the men.
Day of the Dead Fancy Dress Ideas for Women
If you already have a long bright coloured skirt and a loose white cotton top, the easiest and cheapest way is just to add flower accessories to create a Mexican Senorita look with a Day of the Dead
flower headband or
hair clips.
Mexican Day of the Dead Flower Headband | Party Packs
Or you can simply buy a full
Mexican Day of the Dead costume
Mexican Day of the Dead Fancy Dress Costume | Party Packs
Day of the Dead Fancy Dress Ideas for Men
Again if you already have a black suit or black trousers and a shirt, you can simply add mexican style accessories to create your Mexican Day of the Dead Senor look, such as a
Mexican sombrero,
Mexican moustache or
poncho
Or you can simply buy a
full Mexican day of the Dead costume
Mexican Day of the Dead Mens Fancy Dress Costume | Party Packs
Sugar Skull Face Paint
The main thing that distinguishes the Mexican Day of the Dead costume from the usual Mexican fancy dress outfit is the distinctive sugar skull makeup. This is really easy to achieve with a few colours. The basic design is a
white base,
black lips (with stitched mouth), nose and eye sockets with
pink or
purple coloured flower patterns around the eyes. There are lots of variations with webs, scrolls, hearts and other shapes on the forehead and cheeks. Here are some of my favourites:
[gallery link="file" size="full" ids="2394,2393,2395"]
or if you’re pushed for time, you can cheat and use one of these fab masks;
Day of the Dead mask with flowers,
pink sugar skull mask or
black lace Sugar Skull mask
Mexican Day of the Dead Sugar Skull & Flower Mask | Party Packs
For more ideas visit the Party Packs
Day of the Dead shop or our
Day of the Dead Pinterest board
So Hasta la vista and hope you have a spooktacular Day of the Dead party!
