Day of the Dead, also known as Dia de los Muertos, is a Mexican celebration of the deceased. Sugar skulls are part of the holiday tradition and are usually made to represent a deceased loved one. But they also serve as interesting folk art. A way of combining American Halloween traditions with Mexican Dia de los Muertos traditions is by carving your pumpkin with a sugar skull image.
Mexican Themed Pumpkin Carving Stencils
Day of the Dead: JP’s Jammin Pumpkins has a cool decorated Day of the Dead skull for its members as part of their original designs. Membership starts at $2, but there are other options as well if you want to download more than one stencil for your Halloween festivities.
Cat Sugar Skull: A Mexican Day of the Dead sugar skull of a big cat. This is a little bit of a twist on the traditional since it is of a big cat rather than a human. It can be downloaded and printed out for one credit. The website requires you to buy three credits at the price of three dollars though.
Sugar Skull: A more traditional Dia de los Muertos decorated skull is also available from Stoneykins. Although, it looks a little more challenging to carve than the one from JP’s Jammin Pumpkins. It also costs one credit.
Free Jack-O-Lantern Faces: Paper Pumpkins has several free Latino themed All Soul’s Day jack-o-lantern stencils. This is my favorite one of the All Soul’s Day stencils.