Ballymaloe Halloween Barmbrack

ALMOST every culture around the world marks Halloween, the Day of the Dead or All Souls Day in it’s own magical way, but despite the differences, the basic idea behind all these customs is to honour, remember and appease the dead.

Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrations are the most colourful and flamboyant, it’s a huge festival, celebrated by Mexicans all over the world. Common traditions include creating altars, Ofrenda, in the home to honour the dead, laying out offerings, sharing stories and reminiscences and visiting and cleaning the graves.

This is a convivial rather than sombre affair with relatives bringing the favourite foods of the deceased to the graveyard to share a picnic with relatives and friends as they share memories of their loved ones. For non-Mexicans their first introduction to the Day of the Dead seems spooky and macabre. Colourful skeletons, bones and skulls decorate both homes and food. The tradition of making sugar skulls, calaveras de azucar, endures. These gaily decorated vibrant candied skulls are not considered to be creepy or morbid, instead they are happy , even smiling or laughing, embellished with eye popping colours, hot pinks, neon blue, bright yellow, vivid orange, glowing green…. They can be further decorated with glitter, sequins, beads, rhinestones, feathers, shiny foil and googly eyes, anything that will stick to the icing. Female skulls can be adorned with paper hats, male with cowboy or sailor hats. There’s a lot of room for creativity, but they are rarely eaten. Sugar skulls are placed on the altar and last for up to year. Check out Pinterest for a feast of colour.