What is a Catrina in the Day of the Dead?
One of the strongest and most recognizable symbols of The Day of the Dead celebrations is the tall female skeleton wearing a fancy hat with feathers. Her name is La Catrina and the essence of her story goes deep into Mexican traditions and roots but has been restyled only in the last century. …
What is the story behind Catrina?
La Calavera Catrina was created circa 1910 as a reference to the high-society obsession with European customs and by extension, Mexican leader Porfirio Diaz, whose corruption ultimately led to the Mexican Revolution of 1911.
What was the original purpose of La Catrina Before Day of the Dead?
La Catrina specifically was created in the early 1910s by Mexican political cartoonist José Guadalupe Posada. According to Dr. Canto, Posada frequently used the elegantly dressed skeletons to criticize the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz and the upper classes that supported him during the Mexican Revolution.
What are the Day of the Dead skeletons called?
A calaca (Spanish pronunciation: [kaˈlaka], a colloquial Mexican Spanish name for skeleton) is a figure of a skull or skeleton (usually human) commonly used for decoration during the Mexican Day of the Dead festival, although they are made all year round.
Is La Catrina a goddess?
According to urban legend, La Catrina’s roots come from Aztec death goddess Mictecacihuatl. In the legend, the goddess served the same purpose as La Catrina does today: to honor and protect those who have passed and to symbolize the relationship Mexicans have with death.
Why is the pan de muerto decorated with bones?
The bones represent the deceased one (difuntos or difuntas), or perhaps bones coming out of a grave, there is normally a baked tear drop on the bread to represent goddess Chīmalmā’s tears for the living. The bones are often represented in a circle to portray the circle of life.
Who is the Day of the Dead Lady?
La Catrina
Mexico’s lady of death, La Catrina, is José Guadalupe Posada’s most famous character. It is a reminder to enjoy life and embrace mortality.
Who is Lady of the dead?
Our Lady of the Holy Death is a personification of death. Unlike other saints who originated in Mexican folk Catholicism, Santa Muerte is not, herself, seen as a dead human being. She is associated with healing, protection, financial wellbeing, and assurance of a path to the afterlife.
What is calavera de Azúcar?
Calaveras de azúcar—literal sugar skulls—are beautiful pieces of Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) rituals and tradition. Names of deceased loved ones are written in royal icing on the foreheads, and they’re placed on altars created to celebrate their lives and loves.
What was La Catrina’s role in the afterlife?
La Catrina was not Latin America’s first grand lady of the afterlife. This honour belongs to Mictēcacihuātl – the queen of the Aztec underworld of Chicunamictlan. Her role was to watch over the bones of the dead, and her presence was front-and-centre during any recognition of those who had passed on. And where had those souls passed to?
What is the meaning of La Catrina?
La Catrina has become an icon of the Mexican Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Similarly one may ask, what does Catrina mean? Noun. catrina (plural catrinas) An elegantly dressed skeleton figure; used as a symbol of the Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, celebration.
What does the Calavera Catrina mean?
This is La Calavera Catrina – the ‘elegant skull’ – often simply La Catrina. And however superficially festive it may appear, La Catrina’s presence throughout Mexico’s Day of the Dead mythology makes a much deeper statement of mortality, destiny and the societal divisions of class.
Why is the skull the symbol of Dia de los Muertos?
The elegant skull has become a festive symbol of the Dia de los Muertos – but its original inception was a statement of more than just the inevitability of death. A La Catrina Calavera is a ubiquitous image during Day of the Dead – in costumes, food, paintings and dolls, like this one.