Day of the Dead worksheets

1. Contents • 18 PDF Worksheets

2 . What is Day of the Dead? • A brief introduction
3. Day of the Dead glossary • A few key phrases for Day of the Dead
4. Glossary poster • Day of the Dead text
5. 4 glossary cards • Papel picado, pan de muerto, cempazuchitl and calavera
6. 4 glossary cards • Calacas, la catrina, nicho and ofrenda
7. A map of Mexico • Color in and learn a bit about Mexico
8. Find the missing words • Find 7 missing words related to Day of the Dead
9. Crossword puzzle • Six crossword clues for Day of the Dead
10. Wordsearch • Find 12 Dia de los Muertos customs and festivities
11. Day of the Dead match skulls game • Pair the calavera skull designs
12. Color in pages • Calvera sugar skull
13. Color in pages • La Catrina
14. Color in pages • Calacas or skeleton
15. Famous Mexican artists • Artwork and life influenced by Day of the Dead
16. José Guadalupe Posada • Short biography and art activity idea
17. Diego Rivera • Short biography and art activity idea
18. Frida Kahlo • Short biography and art activity idea

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 What is Day of the Dead?
Day of the Dead, or El Dia de los Muertos, is a traditional Mexican holiday,
celebrating and honouring those who have departed. It is believed that spirits of the
dead visit their families on October 31st and leave on November 2nd. 

El Dia de los Muertos is a positive, upbeat occasion. Homes are decorated with
beautiful altars known as ofrendas, laden with offerings of food and gifts for the
weary spirit travellers.

The Day of the Dead is truly a celebration of those who have passed. It is not a sad
or morbid gathering – more a festive, family-centred celebration of friends and
relatives.

In Oaxaca, south of Mexico City, villagers celebrate with parades and processions.
Families will make an ofrenda or offering on the home altar and on graves.

Markets are filled with mountains of food, flowers, egg bread (Pan de Muerto) in
various shapes, sugar and sesame candy skulls, heaps of cinnamon sticks, and the
fabled Oaxaca chocolate.

When visiting a Oaxaca home during Day of the Dead you should not go empty
handed.  It is a common courtesy to bring some chocolate, a loaf of Pan de Muerto
or refreshments.

The skull, or calavera is a very important symbols on Day of the Dead. Besides
representing death, skulls are also shown smiling or doing day-to-day activities such
as riding a bike or playing a guitar, showing that death is not something to be feared
but is simply part of life.

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 glossary
Terms and traditions used on and around this famous and
colorful Mexican festival.

Alfenique - A sugar paste used to make skulls, fruits and other figures.

Calacas - The Grim Reaper - a whimsical skeleton that represents death.

Calavera - A skull, also a slang term for "daredevil".

Calaveritas de azucar - Decorative candied sugar skulls made for El Dia

de los Muertos.

Careta - Masks worn by dancers to scare the dead away at the end of the Day
of the Dead celebrations.

Cempazuchitl - Brightly colored orange or yellow marigold, the traditional

flower of the dead.

Copal - A resin used to make scented incense.

Dia Todos los Santos - All Saints' Day
Nicho - Handmade nichos are used in Mexico to decorate altars in honor of
dead friends and relatives.

Ofrenda - "The offering", a table or altar decorated to hold gifts of food and
drink for the weary spirit guests.

La Catrina - A female skeleton, created by Jose Guadalupe Posada.

Catrina is a satire of a 19th century grande dame.

Pan de Muerto - Bread of the dead

Papel Picado - Colourful tissue paper garlands with intricate, festive designs.
Velas - Candles are used to decorate ofrendas.

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A map of Mexico
G
ul U.S.A.
f

Monterrey
of

Gul f of
C
al
i fo

Mexico
Mexico
rn

Havana
ia

Guadalajara

Mexico City
Paci fic Ocean
Oaxaca
Guatemala
Honduras
Nicaragua

1. Color in Mexico on the map above.

2. What is the capital city of Mexico?

3. Circle Oaxaca on the map.

4. Which two countries border with Mexico?

5. Which two bodies of water surround Mexico?

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 Find the missing words:
offerings incense marigold
grave altar pan de muerto calavera

1. Cempazuchitl is a type of orange or yellow flower also

known as a .

2. A place of burial is called a .

3. is a burning fragrance often used in

ceremonies.

4. The representation of a human skull at Day of the

Dead festivities in Mexico is called a .

5. are gifts left at an altar as an ofrenda.

6. The bread baked for Day of the Dead celebrations

is known as .

7. are colourful paper garlands with

intricate, festive designs used on Day of the Dead.

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infoinfo
at at
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 Crossword puzzle
1

papel picado
catrina
3
Day of the Dead
marigold
4 6 calavera
altar

Clues
1. A bright orange or yellow flower of the dead.
2. A festival held between October 31st and November 2nd.
3. A decorated skull often seen at Day of the Dead festivities.
4. Colorful decorative paper garlands used on Day of the Dead celebrations.
5. A female skeleton, created by Jose Guadalupe Posada.
6. Where gifts or offerings to the dead are left.
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 Word search
R D E K E B V J Z V B C E G Q
C I P P E R Z G T B A A T L D
E AM A Y O T C A N D L E C A
L D A P S K E L E T O NM A Y
E E R E E G K V R Y E X T L O
G L I L U R F U S O R M R A F
R OG P E X I C O P A E N V T
A S O I R D E Y B A E X S E H
T M L C VW S T D P D I P R E
E UD A C A L A V E I C A A D
J E S D Z F E S T I V A L C E
D R I O SW H X E N X N I X A
A T R A H U P Z C V P G S H D
F O Z V I C T O R A L T A R C
E S E R P Y S I N C E N S E I

MEXICAN CANDLE FESTIVAL

PAPEL PICADO SKELETON ALTAR
CALAVERA INCENSE DAY OF THE DEAD
MARIGOLDS OFFERINGS DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

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 MATCH SKuLLS GAME
Draw a line between the pairs of matcing skulls. Color in your favorite set!

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Make a sitting skeleton! Color in and cut out your Calacas. Fold as indicated.

fold

fold
fold

fold

fold

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MEXICAN ART AND DAY OF THE DEAD

La Calavera Catrina
by José Guadalupe Posada 1910

Tree of Hope, Remain Strong

by Frida Kahlo 1946

The Day of the Dead

by Diego Rivera 1924
Source http://www.abcgallery.com/R/rivera/rivera.html

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José Guadalupe Posada was a Mexican artist who specialised in printmaking. He was born on
February 2, 1852 and has influenced many modern Latin American artists and cartoonists
because of his satirical acuteness and social engagement.
Posada's most popular works are his calaveras, which can assume various disguises such as the
Calavera de la Catrina, the ‘Skull of the Female Dandy’. These images were meant to poke fun
at the upper classes way of living during the reign of Porfirio Díaz.
Since Posada’s death his artwork has become associated with the Mexican holiday Dia de los
Muertos and his images of death symbolize Mexico's intimate and comfortable relationship
with death, which is best expressed during the annual Day of the Dead holiday.

Posada played a pivotal role in the development of Diego Rivera's work. Rivera would often
stop by to visit Posada and watch him work at his studio. Rivera credited Posada as having a
great influence on his own artwork and direction.
Largely forgotten by the end of his life, Posada's engravings were brought to a wider audience
in the 1920s by the French artist Jean Charlot, who first saw them while visiting Diego Rivera.
While Posada died in poverty, his images are well known today.

Calaveras en bicicleta by Jose Guadalupe Posada 1910

The Folk Dance Beyond the Grave
(detail) by Jose Guadalupe Posada 1910
Art activity idea:
Draw a cartoon image of your own skeleton character,
enjoying a Day of the Dead fiesta.

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Diego Rivera
Painter and muralist Diego Rivera was born in Mexico in 1886. He is known today as one of
the greatest Mexican artists of the 20th century.
He began sketching and drawing at the age of 10 and later entered the San Carlos Academy
of Fine Art in Mexico City. In 1907 his studies continued in Europe where he became friends
with several famous artists, including Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, and Piet Mondrian.
In 1921, he started working for the Mexican government. He created a series of murals located
in public buildings. He sought to make these murals reflect the lives of the working class and
native peoples of Mexico.
In the painting below Rivera included the famous skeleton image of ‘La Catrina’ that Posada
so often employed,a symbolic representation of a typical society woman from turn of the
century Mexico. Can you also spot Rivera’s wife Frida Kahlo in the painting? Diego Rivera
and Frida Kahlo's relationship was passionate and stormy. They were married in 1929,
divorced in 1940, and then married again that same year.

Sueño de una Tarde Dominical en la Alameda Central (detail). Mural by Diego Rivera.

Art activity idea:

Create your own mini mural idea for your home or school
library, dining room or other communal area.
Try to incorporate themes that represent your community.

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Frida Kahlo
Self-portrait artist Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907, in Coyocoán, Mexico City,
Mexico. One of Mexico's greatest artists, Frida Kahlo began painting after she was severely
injured in a bus accident at the age of 18. Kahlo grew up in the family’s home where she
was born - later referred to as the Blue House or Casa Azul.
Kahlo married fellow communist artist Diego Rivera in 1929. During the early years of
their marriage she travelled with Rivera to the USA where he worked on Mural commi-
sions. In the 1930’s, Kahlo began to incorporate more graphic and surrealistic elements in
her work. She went to live in Paris for a time where she exhibited some of her paintings and
became friendly with the artists, Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso.
Kahlo divorced Diego Rivera in 1940 but they married again that same year.
In the 1950’s Frida’s health problems dominated her life but she continued to put painting
and political causes first despite suffering great pain and limited mobility.
She liked to play with the theme of death in her work and, perhaps because of her early
accident and ill health, this theme also played a large role in her day-to-day life. She
dressed cardboard skeletons in her own clothes and ordered a sugar skull emblazoned with
her name.

“I tease and laugh at death,” Kahlo liked to say, “so that it won’t get the better of me.”
In the spring of 1953 she staged a triumphant one-woman exhibition of her paintings,
curated with her imminent death in mind. She was carried into the gallery by ambulance
on a hospital stretcher and dressed in native costume and jewelry, and held court from her
own four-poster bed installed in the gallery for the show, surrounded by young fans and
crippled old friends. A grinning skeleton fixed to the underside of her bed’s mirror-lined
canopy lay face down as if watching her.
Since her death in 1954, Kahlo’s fame as an artist has only grown. Her beloved Blue House
was opened as a museum in 1958 and Kahlo is now recognised as one of the great 21st
century atists and icons of female creativity.

Art activity idea:

Why not try creating your own self portrait?
You could include themes that are important
to you or are facets of your own personality.

Self-portrait with thorn necklace

and hummingbird by Frida Kahlo 1940

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