“Día De Los Muertos” or “Day of the Dead” is celebrated in early November. During this well-known Hispanic holiday, people believe that November 2nd (Day of the Dead) is the one day a year that spirits can come back to earth and be among their loved ones. Close family and friends of the deceased make altars that can be seven levels high with each level representing a stage in the person’s life. Their favorite meals are cooked and placed on the altar, along with flowers, candies, and toys (mainly if the late person was a child). Even though this is a celebration of death, decoration makes “Day of the Dead” look like the complete opposite. All the holiday decorations are bright and colorful; one of the biggest attractions are the sugar skulls. These colorful decorations are made of sugared clay. If you have more questions, feel free to go watch the movie “Coco” for the 100th time.

Ms. Kimbley’s Art class participated in the cultural experience by creating Sugar Skulls. The process took the course of one week. On Monday, classes made the sugary mixture. The mixture consisted of Granulated Sugar, Merengue Powder, different colored icing tubes and water. Ingredients were kindly donated from fellow Sahuaro teachers. On Tuesday students looked  for inspiration. On Wednesday, skull molds were filled and left overnight to dry.

“This was the first year I’ve done sugar skulls with my class and I wouldn’t say it was hard it was just….. sticky,” Ms. Kimbley said in between laughs. “The kids really enjoyed it and it was a nice break from drawing and painting, many of them could relate culturally which was amazing.” Junior Angie Garcia, one of the lucky students who got to make sugar skulls said, “You have room for creativity.” Another junior, Nicholas Filiberti, also commented, “It was amazing.”

Finally on Thursday students were able to stick their molds together and start decorating their newly formed skulls. Friday was the last day of their Dia De Los Muertos unit, so it was time for students to finish their masterpieces and take home a small part of Hispanic culture.