This year, glit­tery jew­els and over­shad­owed skull con­tour was the go-to last minute cos­tume for many to offer that splash of col­or and His­pan­ic her­itage. Singer and actress, Cami­la Cabel­lo, took advan­tage of her last-minute fum­ble into a proud moment to cel­e­brate her His­pan­ic her­itage.

Cami­la post­ed an Insta­gram reel with her danc­ing and serv­ing in her fierce cos­tume to her new song ‘Oh Na Na’. The singer made it clear to fans that her “makeshift last min Hal­loween cos­tume, Feliz Dia de los Muer­tos” was going to be used to good work as she danced away in her white and sil­ver look with a col­or­ful flower and but­ter­fly crown. This look scored her the com­ments on her page like “Queen of Dia de los Muer­tos” and “Beau­ty!.” The singer also decid­ed to sur­prise us with a cou­ple of cos­tumes fea­tur­ing Shawn Mendes and Cabel­lo hit­ting Insta­gram with the cou­ple pos­ing along­side each oth­er with Mendes dressed in a tra­di­tion­al mari­achi suit fea­tur­ing the skull can­dy face and Cabel­lo shined with black-stud­ded make­up and pink flower crown to match her dress.

The cou­ple looked amaz­ing togeth­er with col­or­ful make­up and even had a danc­ing video to accom­pa­ny their pic­ture cap­tion­ing the post, “Feliz dia de los muer­tos.” As beau­ti­ful and cre­ative this dec­o­ra­tive skull make­up looks, these looks have mean­ing to His­pan­ic cul­ture.

In Mex­i­co, a Mex­i­can hol­i­day called Dia de los Muer­tos (Day of the Dead) is a three-day cel­e­bra­tion meant to hon­or deceased loved ones. The cel­e­bra­tion begins on the 31st of Octo­ber and ends on the 2nd of Novem­ber. The hol­i­day is cel­e­brat­ed with fes­ti­vals, food, vig­ils and offer­ings to the deceased. The ofren­das are per­son­al­ized shrines for loved ones dec­o­rat­ed with can­dles, sug­ar skulls, col­or­ful flow­ers, and favorite dish­es and drinks. These altars are made by many to cel­e­brate loved ones but also fans build shrines to deceased celebri­ties to pay trib­ute to their lega­cy such as singer Sele­na Quin­tanil­la in San Antonio’s Mi Tier­ra Cafe & Bak­ery.

The face paint­ing tra­di­tion has the sig­na­ture “sug­ar skull” make­up look that ref­er­ences the small, dec­o­rat­ed skull heads, called calav­eras de azú­car. These skulls can be seen dec­o­rat­ed along the ofren­das that many leave as an offer­ing to their deceased loved ones. This hol­i­day has also made a   n impact in film with the 2017 Dis­ney-Pixar film “Coco,” this film cen­ters around this hol­i­day for the plot and has such a beau­ti­ful mes­sage to view­ers about death and loved ones.

More than any­thing this Mex­i­can hol­i­day tru­ly paves a way in cre­at­ing such a mean­ing­ful cel­e­bra­tion in remem­ber­ing the ones who have passed on and shed­ding a more pos­i­tive light.

Blogged By: Des­ti­nee Mon­drag­on