Papel Picado ~ Mexican Paper Banners

DescriptionIn Mexico, papel picados are often incorporated into the altars (ofrendas) during Day of the Dead & are hung throughout the streets during holidays.Papel picado translates to “perferated paper,” this traditional art consists of intricate cut tissue paper strung together & used to decorate for celebrations & festivals. A form of traditional Mexican folk art dating back to pre-Columbian times. In 1998, the governor of Puebla decreed that the style of papel picado produced in San Salvador Huixcolota was part of their cultural heritage.The designs are cut using a template, small mallet, & chisel from as many as 50 stacked tissue papers creating many at one time. They can also be made by folding tissue paper & using small, sharp scissors.They are displayed for secular & religious occasions including Easter, Christmas, Day of the Dead, weddings, quinceañeras, baptisms, & christenings. Common images used include birds, floral designs, & skeletons.Having Aztec Roots (& called amatl), they were originally made from bark of mulberry & wild fig trees. The practice evolved in the 18th century when the Spaniards introduced many new foreign products to Mexico, including tissue paper. This tissue paper was referred to as papel china in Mexico, which translates to “paper from China.” The Spanish church would later commission thousands of strings of papel picado with different designs for religious festivals. That was when artisans began to apply this ancient art form to a new material & papel picado came to be the fiesta decoration we see today.It was in Huixcolotla that they took the colourful paper & began crafting intricate patterns. By the 1970s, it was common in Mexico to decorate the streets & use them on altars. Around 1930 the art form spread from Huixcolotla to other parts of Mexico, & sometime in the 1960s, papel picado spread to Mexico City, & then to the USA & Europe.1 x Miniture Papel PicadoHandmade in MexicoApprox 4 in