The Pasadena Public Library is hosting an online tutorial that will give kids the opportunity to make sugar skulls from home while honoring Hispanic Heritage Month.
The pre-recorded video will launch on the Pasadena Library’s YouTube channel on Thursday, October 15, starting at 8 a.m., a Library announcement said.
Sugar skulls are skull-shaped candy, most often made from compressed white sugar, that are decorated in bright colors and placed on an altar that people usually set up near Dia De Los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, to commemorate their departed loved ones. The tradition is believed to have started as part of the Often, the names of the deceased are written on the skulls, which are placed on the altar along with other “ofrenda” or offerings, such as the departe one’s memorabilia, or their favorite food and drinks.
The tradition is believed to have started in prehistoric times, when the skull was a prominent figure in Mesoamerican societies and cultures, depicting a time when the skulls of the war dead or victims of human sacrifice were displayed publicly or placed as offerings to the god of the underworld, Mictlantecuhtli, in Aztec mythology.
It soon became a part of the Day of the Dead commemoration to depict the journey from the world of the living to the world of the dead. When the Spanish conquerors arrived, some of the primitive traditions were lost, but Dia delos Muertos was incorporated into the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’s Day observance, which celebrate the lives of the deceased when they were still living as well as their passage to eternal bliss.
The tradition of the “ofrenda,” including the sugar skulls, illustrate the journey from the terrestrial life into the spiritual one, and has been kept alive through the ages.
With the video launching on Thursday, the Pasadena Public Library hopes to teach kids about the significance of sugar skulls in Mexican culture and how they can make them using supplies at home.
The video will be on the Library’s YouTube channel, www.YouTube.com/
For more information, call (626) 744-4066 or visit www.cityofpasadena.net/
