Figurines and images of skeletons doing routine things are common in Mexico's Day of the Dead celebration, where skulls symbolize life and their familiar circumstances invite levity. Highly-decorated sugar-skull candy has become one of the most recognizable elements of the celebrations.[6][7] They are known in Mexico as calacas, a Mexican Spanish term simply meaning "skeleton".
The modern association between skeleton iconography and the Day of the Dead was inspired by La Calavera Catrina, a zinc etching created by Mexican cartoonist José Guadalupe Posada in the 1910s and published posthumously in 1930.[8] Initially a satire of Mexican women who were ashamed of their indigenous origins and dressed imitating the French style, wearing heavy makeup to make their skin look whiter, it later became a more general symbol of vanity.[9] During the 20th Century, the Catrina entrenched itself in the Mexican consciousness and became a national icon, often depicted in folk art.
Modern fiction
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Literature
The animated skeleton features in some Gothic fiction. One early example is in the short story "Thurnley Abbey" (1908) by Perceval Landon, originally published in his collection Raw Edges.[10] It is reprinted in many modern anthologies, such as The 2nd Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories and The Penguin Book of Horror Stories.
An extended battle scene against an army of skeletal warriors was produced by animator Ray Harryhausen for Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and is remembered as one of the most sophisticated and influential visual effects sequences of its day.[12]
A CG art skeleton, as commonly found in modern fantasy-theme games.
Games
Animated skeletons have been used and portrayed extensively in fantasyrole-playing games. In a tradition that goes back to the pen-and-paper game Dungeons & Dragons, the basic animated skeleton is commonly employed as a low-level undead enemy, typically easy for a player to defeat in combat. Thus, in games which make use of them, such enemies often appear relatively early in the gameplay and are considered a suitable opponent for novice players.[14] In these contexts, they are commonly armed with medieval weapons and sometimes wear armor.
In the PlayStation action-adventure series MediEvil, the protagonist is an animated skeleton knight named Sir Daniel Fortesque.[15]
In the 1999 cult classic Planescape: Torment, Morte is a character who joins the protagonist on his quest and is essentially a sentient, levitating human skull with intact eyeballs who cracks wise and fights by biting.[16]
In the 2011 Minecraft video game, skeletons appear as bow-wielding monsters that shoot players with their bows and burn under the sunlight unless they wear helmets. Sometimes the skeletons spawn with enchanted bows or a random piece of armor, or random full armor, or without a bow, and they can choose melee weapons. On Halloween, they can spawn wearing carved pumpkins or Jack O' Lanterns on their heads. Variants include the wither skeleton, which causes the player to wither away due to the Wither effect, the stray, which is a frozen variant found in snowy biomes, and the bogged, which is a poisonous variant found in swamp and mangrove swamp biomes.
In the video game Fable III, there exist a race of antagonal characters called "hollow men" which are featured throughout the game.
Following the first game, the skeletons were re-added in Minecraft Dungeons, a 2020 dungeon crawler game released by Mojang Studios as the guards of The Nameless One, the king of the undead. In this form, they are equipped with glaives, shields, and iron helmets and chestplates, and are referred to as Skeleton Vanguards. They also spawn as their original bow-wielding form, sometimes wearing iron helmet. Other DLCs include exclusive variants of skeletons.
The Mario series has some Koopa Troopa-skeleton themed enemies known as Dry Bones, where after they get hit, they return to their form. Bowser also has a skeleton form known as Dry Bowser, first debuted in New Super Mario Bros., and featured in other games such as Mario Party and Mario Kart.
The Legend of Zelda series features an enemy called Stalfos, armed skeletons who serve as regular enemies and occasionally as minibosses. Variations such as Stalkids and Stalblins also appear in various games in the series.
In Heroes of Might and Magic 3, skeletons are recruitable troops from the Town, Necropolis.
^Paffenroth, Kim; Morehead, John W. (2012). ""Can These Bones Live Again?": Theological Considerations of the Zombie Walk". The Undead and Theology. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers. pp. 112–120. ISBN9781610978750.
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