Día de los Muertos en Michoacán (Day of the Dead in Michoacán), Part 2

There's always a new wrinkle in hand-made sugar mementos made for each November's Día de los Muertos.  All of the photos are of regional specialty items made in Pátzcuaro.  These bottles are (left to right) Cazadores tequila, Bacardí rum, and Pedro Domecq brandy.  The nearly life size bottles are decorated with icing, down to the last detail of the labels.

Today's sugar skulls, angels, and other sugar figures were, in bygone years, made of wood and clay.  Because wood and clay were so expensive and difficult to work with, artisans searched for materials that not only cost less but were easier to handle.  Sugar proved to be ideal.

A sugar skull, two angels, and a pink-spotted pig wait for customers, side by side on the artisan's shelf.

The sugar figures are formed and allowed to harden in molds, then hand-decorated with stiff confectioner's icing.  The artisan uses a small plastic bag to hold the icing, squeezing tiny lines of decor onto the figures from a hole cut in the corner of the bag.

These life-size fruits are made entirely of sugar.

Artisans report that the preparation and organization for sugar figure sales during the Día de los Muertos festivities begins in January, nearly an entire year before the holiday.  Due to the scarcity of molds for the sugar and the need to allow the sugar to dry to the necessary consistency for decorating, making the figures is the work of many months.

These figures represent the Purhépecha indigenous population of the Lake Pátzcuaro region.  The woman wears her typical skirt, blouse, and rebozo (a type of shawl) and holds a plate of lake white fish, a regional culinary specialty.  The man beside her wears typical clothing and a large sombrero.

Average prices for sugar figures are: catrina (skeletal female figure), 45 pesos; coffins, 6 and 8 pesos; large granulated sugar skull, 50 pesos.  More elaborate sugar figures, such as the two in the photo above, are approximately 60-80 pesos apiece.

Sugar fish!

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