Dia de Los Muertos 2024 is on Friday, November 1, 2024: how do people celebrate dia de los muertos?

Friday, November 1, 2024 is Dia de Los Muertos 2024.

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Day of the Dead, or el Dia de los Muertos, is a happy celebration in Mexico. That's when the souls of the dearly departed return home to the world of the living. All of them. From Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, they descend upon their families and for two days, November 1 and 2, they rejoice together.

The first Day of the Dead, on November 1, is usually reserved for the children, for honoring the souls of the little angelitos. The next day, the adults are remembered. You will see both young and old in the night's rituals, holding vigils in the town cemetery. Everywhere, round loaves, dusted with colored sugar, are shared with both the living and the dead.

Preparations for the most important holidays of the year, the Days of the Dead, begin weeks in advance. Statues, candies, breads and other gifts known to please Los Muertos fill the marketplaces, and are consumed by the living with as much fervor as we do our own Christmas goods. Both the spirits and the economy get a boost at this time of year.

If you were in Mexico right now, preparing for the Days of the Dead, you would gather your children and teach them to prepare the ofrenda, the home altar. "Mira, muchachos, bring the pan de muerto here for your ancestors, they are hungry. Offer them a sugar skull, so they know you remember them."

Made from a sugar paste cast in molds, the candy skulls of the Days of the Dead are decorated with colorful foil eyes and icing.

in which day do we have dia de los muertos?

El Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead), a Mexican celebration, is a day to celebrate, remember and prepare special foods in honor of those who have departed. On this day in Mexico, the streets near the cemeteries are filled with decorations of papel picado , flowers, candy calaveras (skeletons and skulls), and parades.

It is believed that the spirit of the dead visit their families on October 31 and leave on November 2.

In order to celebrate, the families make altars and place ofrendas (offerings) of food such as pan de muertos baked in shapes of skulls and figures, candles, incense, yellow marigolds known as cempazuchitl (also spelled zempasuchil) and most importantly a photo of the departed soul is placed on the altar.

It might sound somewhat morbid, but the Mexicans react to death with mourning along with happiness and joy. They look at death with the same fear as any other culture, but there is a difference. They reflect their fear by mocking and living alongside death.