![]() Last year I visited the Sedlec Ossuary chapel in the Czech Republic. It provided a way to "make lemonade out of lemons" by using some of these excess skeletons for decorative purposes.Ĭhurches in Poland, France, Portugal and the Czech Republic to this day are decorated with centuries-old skulls and bones. Thus the practice of decorating the churches with skulls started out of necessity. Running out of burial space, church officials wondered what to do with the bones and skulls of the dead piling up on the grounds of their churches. Their bodies began to pile up as they were dropped off at churches for burial. Hordes of people were dying from the black plague. The practice of decorating European churches with bones and skulls started in the 15th century. Life is short, so celebrate life while you have it and can enjoy it. The skull was depicted on drinking goblets to remind us to drink up. After the bubonic plague killed a quarter of the population, the skull symbolized both mortality and celebration. The skull rolled into European decorative art in the mid-1300s. The ceremony continues to play a prominent role to this day. Around 300 AD, skull imagery became synonymous with Mexico's Day of the Dead. Starting around 1200 AD, the Aztecs built skull racks to display the heads of warriors defeated in battle. Skull icons have a long history in Latin America. History tells us that as far back as 7200 BC, people in the Middle East displayed the skulls of dead ancestors on shelves in their homes. Today, these ivory white noggins decorate all kinds of things, like T-shirts, lamps, motorcycles and just about any product you can think of. Somehow over the centuries, heads with their flesh stripped away went from a serious symbol of mortality to a pop icon image. Warn against danger? A skull served as a useful warning for all, including the illiterate, to stay away from poisons, other dangerous substances and unsafe conditions of any kind. Want to honor the dead? A skull was used. Throughout history, skulls have been multi-purpose symbols. For a quick summary of what I learned about skulls, skull imagery and our fascination with them, read on. ![]() I decided to do some digging into the history of skulls to shed some light on how and why this scary image is so widely accepted today. Once associated only with outlaw bikers, Nazi symbolism and pirates, skulls can now be found on products ranging from kids' clothes to shower curtains. That got me to thinking about why skulls are so popular now, just as they have been throughout history. I know I am not the only one into skulls. My brand, Lethal Threat, is built around my passions for all things skulls. ![]() I have a room in my house decorated with nothing else but skull paintings and skull sculptures. I don't know what attracted me to them, but to this day I still love skulls and images of skulls. Since I was a kid, I always thought skulls were cool. ![]()
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