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Day of the Dead Skull Art Activity

Last night, my family and I did a Day of the Dead skull art activity. I have become more aware of the Day of the Dead holiday or Día de Los Muertos in recent years and a lot of it is due to grief. Being in a country like the United States, we don’t have any history or culture that approaches death in any kind of celebratory way the way this holiday does. Probably a lot of us here became more aware of the Day of the Dead traditions when the animated film, Coco, was released, a film that I and my family very much enjoyed.

Here in the United States, we mostly seem to view death as a thing to be avoided. We acknowledge it, but only with sadness and mourning. We have funerals and memorial services. But after the services are over, after the people we have lost have been buried or cremated, our culture is taught to simply move on. And forget. And as we know, if we mourn past a certain point, we’re often told it’s time to get over it.

This attitude and viewpoint doesn’t appear to happen with the Day of the Dead. It’s an ancient tradition that originated in Mexico and it takes place every single year on November 1 – November 2. I’d like to talk more in depth about the history and all of the things included in the celebration in another article more fully. But for now, I will try to describe a little of the approach it has towards death. Instead of only sadness, it’s more about celebrating those who are not with us anymore. 

I was introduced much more to it when I took four language classes for my undergraduate degree because I chose Spanish to study. I did several of my bigger projects on this holiday and learned a lot about how this culture observes their dead with festivals and parties that include costumes, food and flowers. Family and friends make ofrendas, an altar to hold pictures, candles and favorite foods or drinks of the people they lost. Sugar skulls and pan de muertos (bread) is made. Ultimately, the focus is on celebrating the life of the person and healing, rather than only mourning their passing. You can see one of the colorful skull illustrations that I did for my one of my class projects on the left.

I remember finding that illustration rather therapeutic to do at the time. I had just lost my grandmother and it was igniting all the things I felt after losing my mother and my husband, Charlie. To me, doing this kind of art represented exactly what I was feeling: death (the skull) among life (the colorful background). Which is what things can feel like with grief. We are surrounded by life but in the center, we have this loss.

Purpose of this Activity

My family and I have never done anything together regarding the Day of the Dead holiday. We’re so used to how our culture here treats death, I suppose, and we were never taught anything differently. Here, you observe it once, when it happens, and then that’s it. There is no annual celebration like this holiday. We just remember quietly to ourselves when anniversaries and holidays and birthdays show up to trigger us and remind us that our person is not here to share these with us. I wonder how it would be to have grown up observing death the way Day of the Dead does. Would grief then feel any different? More manageable? The same?

So, I decided to try one of the most well known traditions, which is decorating skulls, in honor of those we have lost. These skulls, after decorating, can be also be dedicated to a particular person or just an observance in general.

This has been difficult for me to try to approach grief and loss in a happier, more festive way the way Day of the Dead does. But I am willing to try a little at a time. I’m hoping you’ll try with me, too. Finding people to engage with in this activity helps me not feel quite so alone with this subject. Hopefully, it would do the same for you.

Materials

Skull template (you can print one here)

Colored pencils, crayons or markers

Scissors

Stickers (optional)

Instructions

I made this art activity extremely simple. It’s basically a coloring page that you can decorate to your heart’s content. This is a great activity to do with children, too, if they’re interested. I got all four of mine to participate.

  1. Print off your skull template by clicking the link above.
  2. With colored pencils, crayons or markers, decorate your skulls. Typically they are decorated with things like flowers, ornate swirls and designs, hearts, etc. And lots of colors! You can do a Google search for some ideas, if you need to.
  3. When your skull looks the way you want it, take your scissors and cut it out.
  4. Here is where you can dedicate your skull art to a particular person you have lost. Or you can make your skull represent all of the people you have lost. If you want, you can write their name(s) on your skull. You could also write a good memory or a poem on the back to further your dedication.

Our Results

In my previous art activity posts, I have only posted my own personal results. But this time, with my family’s permission, I wanted to post all of their attempts, along with mine, of Day of the Dead skull art. I put the name of each person underneath their own work below. This was a fun, and different activity, I think. As I said above, it’s definitely a different way of observing loss. I’m not used to it, but I enjoyed trying a new approach to grief and try to think more about celebrating their existences. I would like to try more Day of the Dead activities in the future and post them here on the site. I feel like I am more open to doing it for my mother and grandmother. When I try to think of doing it for my late husband, Charlie, there is a resistance. I’m not sure why. It feels too painful and maybe too real?

I found the different ways that my kids chose to decorate their skulls to be extremely interesting and in some cases, surprising. Such as Nick’s checkerboard pattern. Nick is my youngest and typically struggles with doing artistic activities, especially in school. I think he’s uncertain about it because sometimes he has to think about what’s not existing (using the imagination) and Nick prefers to deal with what’s actually right here in front of us. He also wants to be as individual as possible. I think he very much accomplished that with this. He even got out a ruler and meticulously measured all of his lines. That was also surprising because he’s usually a boy of very little patience. I think doing a checker pattern also helped him feel like it was a “logical” way he could do the project and not have to worry too much about a whole bunch of designing. I thought his was the most original and clever in that way.

Charlotte, age 15

(Charlotte, age 15)

Bradley, age 14

(Bradley, age 14)

Nick, age 13

(Nick, age 13)

Christie, age 16

(Christie, age 16)

My new spouse, Michael

(My new spouse, Michael)

Me, Nikki

(Me, Nikki)

Let’s See Yours

If you feel comfortable trying this activity and sharing your own results in the comments below, I would be really interested in hearing about it. If you want to send me your result, you can at nikki@grievingarts.com. You can use our family’s skull art as inspiration for your own if you like. If you do try decorating a Day of the Dead skull, please let me know how you felt doing this. What did you observe in your own soul regarding grief and loss and observance of your loved one in this way? Is Day of the Dead something you’re very familiar with already or are you more like me and have only recent, limited experienced with this annual holiday?

We are here to encourage and help each other in kindness, so as always take care!

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