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This year we decided to create the first Flora family ofrenda for Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. While I have celebrated the holiday with family in Mexico in the past, I have never made an ofrenda of my own at home, so I looked for inspiration on Instagram and Pinterest and compiled a list of what seemed to be good components: marigolds, papel picado (a paper banner), fruit, drinks, candles, photos and sugar skulls. You can add personal items or pretty much whatever you’d like.
The most challenging part of putting together an ofrenda was compiling photos of deceased family members. I didn’t have photos of some of them, so I had to ask family to find them among their photo collections, send them to me and then print them out. We made sure to include a photo of our dog Taylor, who died a year and a half ago.
We also painted our own sugar skulls as a fun family project one night. I bought ceramic white skulls here and then purchased a small set of acrylic paints, along with some paint brushes. I found an image on Pinterest that I wanted to recreate on my skull and tried my best. I am pretty pleased with the result given that I’m not an artist and that I messed up a few times and covered the errors with white paint. My skull now lives in the ofrenda.
We have also added sugar skull glasses to hold beverages, as well as more photos. We still have more work to do, like adding food, beverages and personal items to the ofrenda, but I wanted to show the progress so far. We still have more time before Dia de los Muertos.
Do you celebrate Day of the Dead? Have you ever created an ofrenda?
Watch a video of the DIY Sugar Skull:
Buy a ceramic skull to paint**:
Related post:
Night of 1,000 Jack-‘o’Lanterns at Chicago Botanic Garden
Learn more:
National Geographic: Top 10 Things to Know About the Day of the Dead
Marette Flora is the founder of Floradise blog and personalized gift shop. Marette is a passionate storyteller and creator. She attended the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and obtained a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication.
She is passionate about creating helpful and meaningful things.