Día de Muertos Trivia | 30 facts about the celebration

The Day of the Dead or Dia de Muertos is a holiday celebrated on 2nd of November mostly in Mexico, but is not limited there.

Let’s find out more about it!

1. The Day of the Dead in Spanish is Día de Muertos or Día de los Muertos.
2. It is a holiday celebrated from 31st October through 2nd of November inclusive.
3. Though other days, such as 6th November, may be included depending on the locality.
4. It largely originated in Mexico, where it is mostly observed, but also in other places, especially by people of Mexican heritage elsewhere.
5. Although associated with the Western Christian Allhallowtide observances of All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, it has a much less solemn tone and is portrayed as a holiday of joyful celebration rather than mourning.
6. The multi-day holiday involves family and friends gathering to pay respects and to remember friends and family members who have died.
7. These celebrations can take a humorous tone, as celebrants remember funny events and anecdotes about the departed.
8. Traditions connected with the holiday include honoring the deceased using calaveras and aztec marigold flowers known as cempazúchitl, building home altars called ofrendas with the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these items as gifts for the deceased.
9. The celebration is not solely focused on the dead, as it is also common to give gifts to friends such as candy sugar skulls, to share traditional pan de muerto with family and friends, and to write light-hearted and often irreverent verses in the form of mock epitaphs dedicated to living friends and acquaintances, a literary form known as calaveras literarias.
10. In 2008, the tradition was inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
11. During the ancient Mexican holiday, it’s believed that spirits of the dead momentarily return to the land of the living, for a brief reunion. The community looks at death as an opportunity for renewed life.
12. Day of the Dead is celebrated with parades, festivals, and more across Mexico.
13. While Halloween and Day of the Dead occur nearly in tandem and share similar customs (candy, face painting, and community gathering), the two are not related.
14. Halloween has ancient Celtic roots, while Day of the Dead has its own origins that date back to the Indigenous people of Mexico and Central America.
15. Roughly 3000 years ago, amongst the Aztec, Toltec, and Mayans, death and the dead were seen as a natural part of life that should be honored and celebrated, rather than mourned.
16. In particular, the Nahua people of central Mexico believed the deceased traveled on a years-long journey to Chicunamictlán, the Land of the Dead.
17. The living would provide supplies, such food and water, to aid them on the trek.
18. This practice inspired the modern tradition of creating altars—known as ofrendas—at their homes, in addition to leaving offerings at the gravesites of loved ones.
19. To beckon spirits back into the Land of the Living for the festivities, revelers create makeshift altars, or ofrendas, at their homes and at the gravesites of their deceased loved ones.
20. Families gather at the site to eat, tell stories, and even clean the graves.
21. The most prominent food consumed is pan de muerto, or bread of the dead, which is a yeast-based sweet egg bread.
22. Other delicacies include calabaza en tacha (candied pumpkin), calaveras (the famous sugar skulls), tamales, atole, and spicy Mexican hot chocolate.
23. Years later, in 1947, famed artist Diego Rivera depicted an elaborately dressed La Catrina in his celebrated mural Dream of a Sunday Afternoon.
24. As it is displayed in Mexico City’s Alameda Park, La Catrina gained even more visibility amongst the country’s people.
25. As a leader of the dead, and an integral part of Aztec history, she was a natural fit amongst Day of the Dead celebrations.
26. While cempasúchiles are often used as an offering to decorate ofrendas, over time they’ve earned a spot next to skulls as one of the most prominent Day of the Dead symbols.
27. Also known as flor de muerto, or flowers of the dead, the importance of the lively orange and yellow marigolds date back to the time of the Aztecs, according to Remezcla.
28. The color and scent of the flowers are believed to lure spirits from their places of rest to their families.
29. “Sugar skull makeup,” as it’s called in many a Youtube beauty tutorial, is undeniably gorgeous on a purely aesthetic level; it’s a large part of why it’s been a popular Halloween costume idea for years. Know that if you’re not of Latino or Hispanic—and of Mexican descent, particularly—some people may consider this cultural appropriation.
30. If you do decide to wear sugar skull makeup and other costume accoutrements such as flower crown headbands and traditional Mexican dresses, there are ways to make sure you’re doing so respectfully. Keep in mind that, again, Day of the Dead is actually unrelated to Halloween. Before you apply that face paint, take a moment to educate yourself on the historical and lasting cultural significance of La Catrina. And, as Refinery29 notes, avoid any bloody or scary elements to your costume, because uplifting celebration is an integral part of Día de los Muertos.