What Is Day Of The Dead?

Día de los Muertos – aka Day of the Dead in the anglophone world – is an annual fiesta known for its vibrant colours, huge parties and skeletons galore. But why is it celebrated? Here’s what you need to know.

What Is Day Of The Dead?

Day of the Dead is an annual Mexican celebration dedicated to remembering departed loved ones. Better known in Mexico as Día de los Muertos, the joyful fiesta dates back thousands of years, deriving from the Aztec, Toltec and other Nahua people. They saw death as an integral, ever-present part of life, and believed mourning the dead to be disrespectful. Instead, Día de los Muertos is all about colour, vibrancy and joy.

Nowadays, the tradition is a blend of Mesoamerican ritual, European religion and Spanish culture. It’s based on the belief that, on the Day of the Dead, the border between the spirit world and the real world dissolves, meaning people can reunite with loved ones. This coincides with All Saints Day (1 November) and All Souls Day (2 November) in the Christian calendar, two feast days all about honouring the departed, these days marked by Halloween.

Día de los Muertos is widely celebrated in Mexico, where parties and parades take place with revellers donning costumes, drinking, dancing and playing music. At the heart of the festivities however is the building of ofrendas (Spanish for ‘offering’). These are altars filled with photos of the departed alongside their favourite foods, drinks and scents. The belief is that these lovely creations with all of their alluring colours and smells attract the dead from the cemetery back into the realm of the living to enjoy a joyful family celebration, guided by candles lighting their way. Some ofrendas even include water, soap and towels so the returning dead can freshen up. In Mexico, it is also common to visit the deceased’s graves with gifts, exchange gifts among the living (especially sweets and pan de muerto), and even pen mock epitaphs dedicated to living friends, family members and colleagues.

You might recognise a lot of this from Disney’s 2017 film Coco, which is a great watch to introduce little ones to Day of the Dead (stream on Disney+). In the film, the ofrenda is the literal gateway to the land of the living, with anyone whose image is excluded from the family ofrenda unable to escape the land of the dead. The film also explores the idea of ‘final death’: when the deceased’s photo is excluded from the ofrenda, and their memory is thus dead too.

Wahaca

When Is Day Of The Dead?

Day of the Dead is celebrated every year on 1 and 2 November, coinciding with the Christian Allhallowtide season (All Saint’s Eve [aka Halloween], All Saint’s Day, and All Souls’ Day), which is a time to remember, honour and celebrate the dead.

Who Celebrates Day Of The Dead?

Day of the Dead has its largest following in Mexico, where it originated, but much of Latin America also celebrates the momentous day, as does the Mexican diaspora across the globe, especially in the United States. If you would like to mark the occasion in London, here are our favourite Mexican restaurants in the city, and here is our pick of the very best special menus created for the occasion.

That all said, the largest group of celebrants is of course the dead, who are called back into the land of the living by their ancestors’ and their ofrendas.