Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos)

What: Mexico’s Día de los Muer­tos is a cel­e­bra­tion of life with a theme of death and seeks to hon­our and demon­strate love and respect for deceased fam­i­ly mem­bers, as those we have lost loved ones remem­ber them through the leav­ing of pho­tos and pos­ses­sion at a tem­po­rary altar called an ofren­da, with the four ele­ments of life; water, wind, earth and fire fur­ther left by rel­a­tives and friends to keep them safe.

After such remem­brance par­tic­i­pants then seek to laugh at death, as hun­dreds of thou­sands of peo­ple dress up in the icon­ic image of Día de Muer­tos, the skele­ton with their faces paint­ed to resem­ble a laugh­ing skull. From here its time to enjoy music, dance, a parade and food as the marigolds, calav­eras (skulls), monarch but­ter­flies and skele­ton stat­ues fill the street to cel­e­brate life and spread joy and reunite the liv­ing with the dead.

When: The day of the dead begins on mid­night of the 1^st of Novem­ber and ends on the 2^nd of Novem­ber.

Where: The day of the dead is cel­e­brat­ed all over Mex­i­co and by Mex­i­can ex-pats, for the best and tra­di­tion­al expe­ri­ence its rec­om­mend­ed to be in Mex­i­co City on both the days of the fes­ti­val and also the week­end before where a grand parade also takes place.

Dura­tion:  The fes­ti­val lasts for two days, with the day offi­cial­ly begin­ning on mid­night of the 1^st of Novem­ber when rel­a­tives are believed to be unit­ed with their loved one for a peri­od of 24 hours.

Tick­ets: Day of the dead is com­plete­ly free to attend and par­tic­i­pate in – although allow mon­ey for a skele­ton cos­tume and offer­ings for rel­a­tives.  

Need to Know: It’s not Hal­loween !  — although it takes place a day after day of the dead is not Hal­loween and any men­tion of it being so will not be well received. Oth­er than that day of the dead is a fes­ti­val of joy so enter into the spir­it !

More Infor­ma­tion: For more infor­ma­tion on day of the dead includ­ing its his­to­ry and how deceased rel­a­tives are fur­ther hon­oured vis­it (https://dayofthedead.holiday/)