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The Toy Museum of Catalonia

Pair of Mexican skeletons for All Saints' Day

The toys, a rich part of Mexican folk art, have both common and ceremonial uses. Photo by Jordi Puig. The Toy Museum of Catalonia. Figueres.

 

The toys, a rich part of Mexican folk art, have both common and ceremonial uses. Photo by Jordi Puig. The Toy Museum of Catalonia. Figueres.

 

This cadaverous toy made from terracotta in Oaxaca around the 1960s, formed part of the Day of the Dead (November 1 or 2), both a religious and traditional celebration and one of the most ancient and typical feasts of the Mexican people. It is the result of the merger between the rites based on indigenous beliefs and Catholic festivities introduced by Europeans especially from 1521 onwards.

Among the various adornments and offerings that accompanied the feast, we find skeletal figures as well as funerary items made of wood, paper, sugar, cardboard, clay, plaster and fabric by Mexican folk artists and craftspeople.

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