Who knows the history of sugar skulls?
It is a typical mexican tradition, but there is a little bit of Italy into sugar skulls even if it's a mexican thing! And I am italian too! So there is a connection between Mexico and Italy. We have almost the same flag and the history of those skulls. Let me talk about this story.
During the celebration of Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead), sugar skulls are often used to decorate the ofrendas (offerings). Traditional sugar skulls are made from a granulated white sugar mixture that is pressed into special skull molds and they are generally used for decorative purposes.
The day of the dead was an Aztec ritual that celebrated the lives of those who have deceased. The Spaniards who invaded Mexico tried to eliminate this seemingly offensive month-long holiday with no success. Dia de los Muertos was eventually merged with the Catholic All-Saints day and All-Souls day on November 1st and 2nd in an effort to make the holiday more Christian. Sugar art dates back to the 17th century when Italian missionaries visited the New World. Mexicans during that time period had very little money and learned from the Catholic friars how to make decorations out of an ingredient they had plenty of--sugar. Molds were made of clay and the sugar decorations were used to adorn the church and gravestones and were a part of the ofrendas--the collection of objects placed on an altar for the holiday. For the Dia de los Muertos celebrations, the sugar was pressed into sugar skulls; each sugar skull represented an individual and their name was often inscribed on the forehead of the skull.