CHICAGO, IL — The U.S. Postal Service celebrates the Day of the Dead, an increasingly popular holiday in the United States, with a ceremony hosted by the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago Monday, October 25 at 10 a.m.   The museum is located at 1852 West 19th. Street.

The Day of the Dead pane of 20 stamps are available at Post Office locations nationwide. The stamps will be unveiled at the Musuem with artist Luis Fitch in attendance who designed and illustrated the Day of the Dead stamps.

Chicago Postmaster Eddie Morgan, Jr. will unveil the stamps with assistance from Fitch and National Museum of Mexican Art officials including Cesareo Moreno, Visual Arts Dir./Chief Curator.

Each of the pane’s five identical rows includes four colorful stamps featuring several iconic elements of a traditional Day of the Dead ofrenda.   The stamps will be available for purchase at the ceremony.

Stylized, decorated “sugar skulls” are personalized as four family members, one per stamp: a child with a hair bow, a father sporting a hat and mustache, a mother with curled hair and another child. The lit candles flanking each sugar skull are beacons to guide deceased loved ones on their annual return journey to the land of the living.

Dotting each stamp and adorning their shared vertical borders are marigolds (cempazuchitles), the most popular Day of the Dead flower. The vibrant colors of the flowers and other embellishments, along with the white of the sugar skulls, stand out brightly from the stamps’ black background.

Background

Day of the Dead celebrations can be traced back more than 3,000 years throughout pre-Columbian Latin America.

The Catholic missionaries who arrived with the Spanish colonizers starting in the late 1500s introduced All Saints Day (Nov. 1) and All Souls Day (Nov. 2) to the Americas, and the Indigenous peoples infused these holy days with their own rituals around commemorating and connecting with deceased ancestors. Instead of grieving the dead, the lives of the deceased were celebrated and their memories honored.

Today, Día de los Muertos, as it is known in Spanish, has become a beloved tradition, particularly in U.S. cities with large Mexican and Central American immigrant communities.

The modern version rose out of the activism of the 1970s, when Chicano artists in Los Angeles and San Francisco lifted up Day of the Dead to affirm their heritage and build pride. They combined contemporary and traditional iconography to appeal to all generations of Mexican Americans, unite the community and guide the public toward a more positive understanding of Mexican culture.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans from all walks of life have come to appreciate and enjoy Day of the Dead. Celebrations hosted by museums, galleries and community centers take place each November and may feature a festive procession, skeleton costumes, face painting, music, dancing, special food and arts and crafts workshops.

At the center of it all is the ofrenda, or offering, honoring not only departed family members but also heroes and celebrities. Often assembled by artists, ofrendas feature colorful textiles and cut tissue paper; marigolds and other flowers; candles; photographs; and mementos, as well as the iconic decorated candy or papier-mâché skulls.

The Day of the Dead, with all its exuberant color, life-affirming joy and appeal for the whole family, is fast becoming a popular American holiday.

Stamp Artwork
Luis Fitch designed and illustrated the Day of the Dead stamps and Antonio Alcalá was the art director.

Each of the pane’s five identical rows includes four colorful stamps featuring several iconic elements of a traditional Day of the Dead ofrenda.

Stylized, decorated “sugar skulls” are personalized as four family members, one per stamp: a child with a hair bow, a father sporting a hat and mustache, a mother with curled hair and another child. The lit candles flanking each sugar skull are beacons to guide deceased loved ones on their annual return journey to the land of the living.

Dotting each stamp and adorning their shared vertical borders are marigolds (cempazuchitles), the most popular Day of the Dead flower. The vibrant colors of the flowers and other embellishments, along with the white of the sugar skulls, stand out brightly from the stamps’ black background.

The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products, and services to fund its operations.

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