Day of the Dead 2026: Mexico comes alive during annual Day of the Dead celebrations with makeup, traditions and parade

MEXICO CITY — Bright orange marigolds, glowing candles and faces painted like the elegant skeletons known as catrinas fill the streets of Mexico every year during the country’s Day of the Dead celebrations.

Festivities begin in October and lead up to Nov. 1 and 2, when the souls of deceased loved ones are believed to temporarily return to earth to reunite with their families.

No one knows when the first observance took place, but it is rooted in agriculture-related beliefs from Mexico’s pre-Hispanic era. Catholic traditions were incorporated into the celebration after the Spanish conquest in 1521.

Today, celebrations are marked by massive parades running along Mexico City’s main avenue. Streets, businesses and markets are cloaked in orange Mexican marigold flowers, or cempasuchil, believed to light the path of the dead back to earth with their bright colors. Traditional pan de muerto, or bread of the dead, lines the display cases of bakeries.

Families decorate altars to their loved ones in their homes, placing treats, food and mezcal as offerings next to photos of their loved ones.

On the night of Nov. 1, families gather at cemeteries across the country to reconnect with their dead just as their ancestors have done for centuries.

But as the tradition and the Mexican capital have increasingly gained an international spotlight, and states like Oaxaca and Michoacan have seen an influx of tourists, some regions have experienced tensions around overtourism.

In Mexico City, many locals are skeptical of an annual parade featuring floats decorated with catrinas. The procession was created for the 2015 James Bond film “Spectre” and later incorporated into the city’s celebrations, though it was not previously part of the tradition.

In Janitzio, a small island on a lake in the central state of Michoacan, where celebrations were recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008, authorities closed the pantheon to tourists for the first time this year. The closure came after the island’s community council reported the collapse of damaged tombs, crosses and parts of the cemetery’s perimeter wall because of the flood of people.

Only local families and friends of those buried there would be allowed in.