Mexico's Day of the Dead - resource page
Day of the Dead: Honoring our grandmother, Jesusita
What is Dia de los Muertos or the Day of the Dead? Día de los Muertos is a time to honor and celebrate deceased loved ones. The celebration occurs on November 2 in connection with All Soul's Day. Unli...
read more
Hanal Pixan, Maya Day of the Dead in Pac Chen, Quintana Roo
The monkeys, they tell me, are asleep in a cave across the lagoon. But other than that disappointment, my trip to Pac Chen, a micro sized Maya village in the jungle of the Yucatan Peninsula, is the per...
read more
My journey with La Calaca: a Day of the Dead experience
An opalescent sky muted the harshness of the emerald earth as the old car struggled up the rock-filled Mexican road, leaving the breeze blown coast behind. I had begun a journey deep into the verdant m...
read more
November 2: the Day of the Dead

Through the lens: Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)
Day of the Dead, one of the most important celebrations in Mexico, is understandably difficult for foreigners to fully comprehend. Cemeteries full of families, flowers, food, and music seem daunting to...
read more
Mexico's Dia de Muertos celebration: Is it dying?
"Every year there are more and more tourists. They're not coming to see our tradition, they just want another reason to have a fiesta. It gets worse later, when they start urinating on the candles."
read moreAguascalientes' Museum of Death welcomes you
As October draws to an end, a period of profound mysticism dawns in the heart of Mexico, a time to remember the departed but not without joy. In the hometown of José Guadalupe Posada, festivities are already well underway days before the November 2 Day of the Dead.
read more
Ghosts of the Palace of Blue Tiles: Los fantasmas del Palacio de los Azulejos by Jorge Fernández Granados
Meeting the bony woman
Ghosts, goblins and Gonzales-Gonzales
I am the ghost of Pedro Gonzales-Gonzales, a guy so nice, they named me twice. My mother was a Mexican dancer known as "La Perla Fronteriza" who once danced for Pancho Villa and his men. You can imagin...
read more
Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) in Chapala
Mexico's most intriguing holiday, is linked to a rich variety of popular customs that offer resident expatriates an excellent opportunity to soak in the culture of their adopted home. Here are some sug...
read more
Mexican lithographer Jose Guadalupe Posada: Past and present
In one month, on November 2, it will be "El Dia de los Muertos" (the Day of the Dead), and Jose Guadalupe Posada, or Don Lupe as he was known to his friends, a poor but prolific printm...
read more
Raising The Dead
The attitude towards death evidenced in the quintessentially Mexican holiday of Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) might be puzzling for some. It isn't difficult for foreigners to interpret dancing skel...
read more
Reportaje - Dia de Muertos
REPORTAJE
Día de Muertos
Tradición de siglos que perdura
Por Daniel Díez
Sin cantos ni rezos, lo...
read more
Burying Eula - A Day Of The Dead Story
Eula died during the rainy season, when the earth is soft and moist and a grave is easy to dig. Esperanza said that the damp weather was hard on the ancianos, and indeed, in those months, many a house in town bore over its gate the black ribbon which in central Mexico signifies a death in the household.
read moreDay of the Dead Bread: Pan de Muertos
This is a version of the bread that is made for the November 2 celebration known as the Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in Mexico. You can also mold the bread into different shapes like angels an...
read more
Day of the Dead - A Celebration
Rituals and traditions can provide a sense of place and timelessness. They offer us the opportunity of feeling connected to what has gone before and what will continue through the corridors of time. It...
read more
Mexican Folk Art from Oaxacan Artist Families by Arden Aibel Rothstein and Anya Leah Rothstein
There are hundreds of photos of all kinds of artistic output, from pottery to wood carvings, from basket weaving to candle making, and lots more but we're given a much closer look at the actual creators of all this work. We're treated to wonderful works featuring mermaids, clowns, devils, angels, fishes, skeletons, Biblical scenes, animals and birds of all kinds, and even ladies of the night. These are all used to decorate masks, bedspreads, candles, baskets, jewelry, furniture, statues, toys, pottery and clothing and much, much more plus some 87 brief biographies of each of the artists.
read more
Day of the Dead or alive
In some countries, this time of year is referred to as Halloween and in others, such as Mexico, it's The Day of the Dead, even though, technically, it lasts four days. (In Oaxaca, the Day of the Dead b...
read more
Los Dias de los Muertos (the Days of the Dead)
Foreigners have more trouble understanding Los Dias de Los Muertos than any of Mexico's other fiestas. At first glance, Day of the Dead decorations, colored paper garlands, little skel...
read more
Village in the Sun by Dane Chandos
I reviewed Chandos's other book, "House in the Sun", in Mexico Connect a couple of months ago and now I'm catching up on what was actually the author's first book, published four years earlier. We're given a good long loving look at the various events that mark a typical year in a Mexican village - like The Day of the Dead, the Day of the Cross, Navidad, birthdays and the other festivals that are customarily celebrated. It all adds up to an attractive narrative.
read more
Dia de los Muertos: the dead come to life in Mexican folk art
For foreigners, the traditions and celebrations in Mexican homes and cemeteries during the Day of the Dead seem strange, if not incomprehensible. There is mourning and rejoicing; sadness and silliness ...
read more
Day of the Dead or El Dia de los Muertos in Oaxaca
Drawn by the intrigue of all-night vigils in cemeteries and life-size skeletons propped jauntily in shop windows, tourists flock to Oaxaca and other points in Mexico for Day of the Dead.
During the la...
read more
The Mexican Day of the Dead and The Skeleton at the Feast
This is a compilation of photos, drawings, essays, poems, letters, parts of novels and stories and other sources, all designed to shed light on this unique and enduring Mexican festival. I was also intrigued by the odd coincidence that I happened to read it on the actual Day of the Dead, November 2.
read more