{"id":3592,"date":"2016-10-31T16:13:51","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T20:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/?p=3592"},"modified":"2025-08-01T09:23:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T13:23:23","slug":"mexican-calaveritas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2016\/10\/mexican-calaveritas\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexican Calaveritas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3593\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu\/sites\/417\/2016\/10\/Calaverita3-webx.jpg\" alt=\"Calaverita3 webx\" width=\"550\" height=\"413\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In Mexico, the Day of the Dead is celebrated on November 1 and 2. Many families set up an <em>ofrenda<\/em> or offering to the spirits of loved ones who have passed away.\u00a0\u00a0 It often includes favorite foods and drinks, flowers, candles, images of saints and the remembered ancestors, personal items, and other objects.\u00a0\u00a0 In urban areas, skulls and skeletons are popular elements of <em>ofrendas<\/em>. In addition to sugar skulls, miniature skeleton figures like these, known as <em>calaveritas<\/em>, reenact scenes from daily life. They represent the ancestors and things they liked to do, bringing back happy memories of the deceased.\u00a0\u00a0 These <em>calaveritas<\/em> are currently on display in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/exhibits\/life-death-day-dead-mexico\/\">Life After Death: The Day of the Dead in Mexico<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3594\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu\/sites\/417\/2016\/10\/Calaverita1-webx.jpg\" alt=\"Calaverita1 webx\" width=\"275\" height=\"367\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3595\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu\/sites\/417\/2016\/10\/Calaverita2-webx.jpg\" alt=\"Calaverita2 webx\" width=\"275\" height=\"367\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Miniature skeleton figures, known as calaveritas, are often found on Day of the Dead ofrendas.  Click the link to learn more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":3601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"overlay_title":false,"hide_featured_image_post":false,"wfu_hide_page_title":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artifacts"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mexican Calaveritas - Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Miniature skeleton figures like these, known as calaveritas, reenact scenes from daily life and are used for Day of the Dead altars.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2016\/10\/mexican-calaveritas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mexican Calaveritas - Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Miniature skeleton figures like these, known as calaveritas, reenact scenes from daily life and are used for Day of the Dead altars.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2016\/10\/mexican-calaveritas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-31T20:13:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-01T13:23:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/wp-content\/themes\/wfu-gutenberg-quarantheme\/assets\/images\/wfu-default.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cromwess@wfu.edu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cromwess@wfu.edu\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2016\/10\/mexican-calaveritas\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2016\/10\/mexican-calaveritas\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cromwess@wfu.edu\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/943833eccd0de6b4defd882b6f8bbe13\"},\"headline\":\"Mexican Calaveritas\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-31T20:13:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-01T13:23:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2016\/10\/mexican-calaveritas\/\"},\"wordCount\":116,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2016\/10\/mexican-calaveritas\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"articleSection\":[\"Artifacts\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2016\/10\/mexican-calaveritas\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lammuseum.wfu.edu\/2016\/10\/mexican-calaveritas\/\",\"name\":\"Mexican Calaveritas - Timothy S. 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