My completed sugar skull, image by yours truly

Last week I went to El Burrito for a workshop on calaveras, also known as sugar skulls, to celebrate the Mexican holiday of Day of the Dead.

Typically these skulls are placed alongside food and drink on an altar to celebrate a deceased loved one in hopes that he or she visits and consumes their favourite foods. Sometimes these skulls represent a living person because the Mexican culture mocks death.

Anyhow, it was a great night with an arts and crafts workshop guided by a Mexican artist, delicious cheese quesadillas, tortilla chips with bean dip and gauacamole and even some margaritas and agua frescas. And of course, Daniel (who runs their Twitter) and owner Marysol (she also owns the posh Mexican restaurant and tequila bar Mestizo) were there to make sure all the guests had a wonderful time. Such a fabulous way to spend a Monday evening! I even made a new friend while decorating our skulls – we had dinner afterwards and everything.

Once the skulls were finished everyone voted for their favourite. However, everyone’s came out so great we had to have multiple rounds of voting to break the ties! The winner received vouchers for El Burrito and Mestizo, and obviously I didn’t win and I am totally jealous about this.

Check out these pictures by photographer Mihono Sato from the event:

Sugar skull demo, image by Mihono Sato

Making sugar skulls, image by Mihono Sato

Working on my sugar skull, image by Mihono Sato

Working on our skulls, image by Mihono Sato

Working on our skulls, image by Mihono Sato

Posing with some masks made by the artist, image by Mihono Sato

All the skulls, image by Mihono Sato

Voting on our favourite skulls, image by Mihono Sato

A guest posing with her finished product, image by Mihono Sato