Papel Picado

パペル・ピカド / 19th century– / Technique / Craft Movements

For Mexican festivals dozens of sheets of tissue are chiseled through at once. The delicate openings let light and wind pass, and they carry celebration and remembrance of the dead with the same lightness.

Papel Picado — Papel picado for the Day of the Dead (CC BY-SA 4.0) · © Thirty two — Papel picado for the Day of the Dead (CC BY-SA 4.0) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Thirty two

Papel Picado — White papel picado (CC BY-SA 4.0) · © Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata — White papel picado (CC BY-SA 4.0) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata

At a glance

Visual cues

Chisel-cut openwork
Tissue-paper banners
Light and wind passing through
Fiesta and Día de los Muertos

Best used for

Outdoor festivals needing light decoration strung overhead to catch wind
Event settings and altars that hold celebration and mourning in one manner

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Dictionary entry

Type: Cut letters as voids, leaving thick bridges so the paper survives
Composition: Repeat one design along the line, spaced so wind passes through
Material: Stacked tissue chiseled at once, color alternating sheet by sheet
Caution: Cutting away too much and leaving no bridges tears the sheet on the first windy day, and the decoration falls before the festival ends.
Further study: The workshops of San Salvador Huixcolotla / the Day of the Dead altar / the lineage from Aztec amate paper

Related entries

Pochoir (ポショワール)Shared effects: Intimacy / Nostalgia.Compare Papel Picado and Pochoir
Stained Glass (ステンドグラス)Shared effects: Exhilaration.Compare Papel Picado and Stained Glass

Often confused with

Jianzhi (Chinese Paper Cutting) (剪紙)compare

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