Dia De Los Muertos

Despite not being the tradition of a typical 'tribe', the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival is something that is widely recognisable as a Mexican tradition, and something that is now part of the Latin American identity. The premise behind it, what it is as a tradition, and the way in which people use traditional costumes and makeup to celebrate it, links it closely with many other typical tribal practises. 

The Day of the Dead is a national holiday in Mexico, but is also celebrated widely across Latin America, along with smaller areas in North America, Europe, and the Philippines and Oceania. The holiday is a celebration of the dead, bringing family and friends together to remember and celebrate their loved ones who have passed on. The deceased are honoured by their families who build them private altars in their cemeteries, decorated with sugar skulls and marigolds, and the favorite foods, beverages and past possessions of the dead. 

While brightly coloured paper decorations and bright flowers play a large part in the festivities, in an amazing juxtaposition with that, so do skulls and skeletons. Figurines of skeletons along with traditional Mexican 'Sugar Skulls' (skulls made out of packed sugar that are decorated with brightly coloured flowers, floral patterns, and often jewels and precious stones) can be seen covering gravestones, shrines and streets, along with people (mainly children) whose faces have been painted as traditional and sugar skulls - this is the part that I want to use as inspiration for my final look. 

What has caught my attention most about Mexican sugar skulls is not only how popular they have become as tattoos and as inspiration for makeup looks in ad campaigns and on catwalks, and as dressing-up costumes, but the way in which they combine beauty and ugliness and life and death. That juxtaposition is eye-catching but also thought provoking, and I think it reflects what the Dia de los Muertos festival is all about. As much as I'm drawn to Mexican Sugar Skulls and what they represent, and the tradition of the Day of the Dead festival, I feel that in contrast with the Apatani tribal look, this one is slightly too decorative and feminine (and also too commonly used in modern media) - I'm yet to find tribal inspiration that is a good balance between striking and graphic, and complex and decorative, so I will continue to research more tribes.  (Photos of Sugar Skulls to follow).