"Marco! Why… Why are there human skulls sitting on our kitchen table?" Star asked tentatively, eyeing each skull nervously. She held her wand out, ready for the reason for the skulls being there to jump out and attack. Marco chuckled and pushed her arms aside.
"Relax, Star. They're not human skulls, they're sugar skulls."
"Sugar skulls?" Marco sat at the end of the table with a bowl of red icing.
"Yeah! Wait, this is your first Dia de los Muertos with us." Marco grinned at her. "Oh man, you're going to love it!"
She sat next to him and ran her finger over the sugar skull. "What's a dia de Marto's?"
"Dia de los Muertos," Marco corrected. He dipped a paint brush in the icing and began to draw thin, red lines around the eye sockets of one of the three skulls. "It means Day of the Dead. Every year on November 1st, Hispanic communities hold festivals for Day of the Dead as a celebration for those who have passed. My grandparents come over and we party all weekend!"
"Party?" Star asked, her eyes widening with excitement. Marco smirked.
"Yep, for two days straight. We make these sugar skulls as decorations a few days in advance, then we go to the cemetery and place them around the graves. Some of the city celebrates it as well, so there's going to be lots of things going on downtown. I can't wait for you to see them!"
Star smiled at the sugar skulls. "Do we get to eat these things?"
"Eat? Gross, no. They're hard as a rock and bland. Like I said, they're for decoration, so we usually dress them up with icing," he gestured to the bowl of red on the table, "glitter, rhinestones, stickers… Anything you want, really."
"We don't celebrate deaths on Mewni," Star sighed, watching Marco draw lines across the skull. "When somebody dies, we walk through the village, with the royal family leading, singing old Mewni songs. Nobody's buried, either, they're all turned to ashes. The family of the deceased walks behind the royal family holding their box of ashes. It's pretty depressing compared to what you're talking about."
"Maybe that's one thing you can change when you become queen," Marco suggested, glancing up at her. She smiled at him.
"Yeah, maybe. So, can I help with one of these?"
"Sure! My parents are out getting the rest of the supplies right now, so all we have is icing."
"Awesome!" she cried, eagerly grabbing a skull and turning to find the bowls of icing.
••••••••
"Whoa, this is huge," Star gasped, craning her neck to look at a humungous shrine. It was lit up by candles and had dozens and dozens of boxes of all sorts of colors. Families gathered all around, some whispering to the shrine and others laying different items in the boxes.
"It's a shrine for the entire city," Marco explained, taking in the peaceful atmosphere around them. The sun had long ago set on the end of Day of the Dead and candles lit up the streets. Marco loved this time of year because he loved seeing all these people with the same heritage as him come together. Learning about it in class and seeing pictures is one thing, but living in, being in the center of it, is a whole other world. Marco hopes that, one day, he'll be able to fly to Mexico and witness an entire country celebrating as one.
"Why are people leaving food?" Star asked, watching an old woman sit a plate of brownies in one of the boxes.
"People leave offerings for their loved ones."
"Did we make any food?" she questioned as her stomach grumbled. Marco laughed.
"No, my family doesn't do that. We brought pictures and green candles because my grandmother says green is the color of peace." He stepped back and gestured to his family, who was filling a box with pictures of their loves ones. His grandfather held a green candle in his hands and smiled down at his family.
"I wish I could do something," Star sighed. Marco looked around for a moment until his eyes fell on an empty box on the top row.
"There's an empty box up there. Do you have anyone you want to remember?" She looked up at that dark, red box with a small smile.
"I do," she answered, looking over at him. "But I don't have anything to leave for them. It's okay, though. I'm not really apart of this anyways…" Marco was about to protest, when an elderly man stepped between them. He gave Star a warm smile.
"Tonight is the night for remembrance. If you have somebody you wish you remember, then you are apart of this celebration." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, white haired doll. Its face was painted with all different colors in the pattern of a sugar skull and it was wearing a long, red dress. "My wife likes to make extras to give to the kids in our neighborhood. I'm sorry for your loss, but I hope you've found a way to celebrate who they were."
Star, shocked, carefully took the doll from the man's hand and held it in her own. She pet the hair and stroked the dress. She looked back at the man and smiled, "Thank you, this really means a lot."
Marco turned to his dad and asked for a candle. His grandmother usually used two, but she was willing to give it up after he explained the situation. He turned to her with a smile and a shadow illuminated across his face.
"Want to fill up that box?" he asked, nodding toward the shrine.
"Well, yeah! But how do I get up there?"
"You could hop on my shoulders."
"…You trust me to get on your shoulders with a candle?"
"I do. Please don't make either of us the one to be celebrated next year."
"Wait, wait!" His mom cried as she began to climb on his shoulders. "This is very dangerous. I'll hand you the candle when you're stable." Star laughed and nodded. When the fire was out of the way, Star swung her legs over Marco's shoulders. Marco wrapped his arms around her legs and slowly rose to his feet. She swayed and rocked and grabbed his face nervously.
"Star, that's my face. Let go of my face." She didn't let go until she was sure she wouldn't fall. "Don't you trust me, Star? I won't let you fall."
"You better not. It's an awful far drop from way up here."
"You're, like, five feet off the ground."
"It'd still hurt!"
"Here you go, Star," Marco's mom said, breaking up the argument. She raised the candle to Star, who took it delicately. Star stared into the dark box for a moment.
"I know this isn't our normal, Uncle Pete," she whispered as she laid the candle in the box. The flame danced like a flower in the wind. "This is what happens when mom sends me to Earth, I guess. But still, I hope you appreciate the offer. I like this a lot better than talking to a stupid tin can." She rested the doll against one side and sighed. "I sure do miss you, Uncle Pete. You were the only insane one on mom's side."
"You good, Star?" Marco asked.
She looked down at him and smiled. "Yeah, I'm good."
"Okay, give me your hands."
When Star was safely back on the ground, she turned to Marco and pulled him into a tight hug. "Thank you for sharing this with me," she whispered in his ear. "When I become queen, I'll introduce all of Mewni to Dia de los Marco!"
He pulled away. "No, it's Di- You know what? Never mind. I hope you do do that, Star. I'll be looking forward to it."
I love this holiday, and I really hope I can attend a real celebration one day. Forgive me if I got some facts wrong, though! I'm American, not Hispanic, so I've never actually celebrated Day of the Dead before (unless you count Spanish class). I just went off most of the things my teacher told me, and a bit of the internet's info. Fun fact: Day of the Dead takes places November 1-2 and has nothing to do with Halloween (contrary to popular belief…)! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! Next part will be up soon! :)