90 Fun Facts About Day of the Dead

Which 1960 Mexican film set on the Day of the Dead was Oscar-nominated?

Macario follows a starving woodcutter who shares his turkey with Death on the eve of the Day of the Dead and is repaid with healing water; it was the first Mexican film nominated for the foreign-language Oscar.

What is the main purpose of a Day of the Dead ofrenda?

To welcome the souls of the departed, families build the ofrenda at home or beside the grave; it is an invitation to a brief reunion with the living, not an altar for worship.

Which bright orange flower decorates Day of the Dead altars, believed to guide spirits with its scent?

Marigolds' vivid colour and strong scent are believed to guide souls home, so families strew the petals in a path leading from the grave or the street to the altar.

Which sweet bread, topped with bone-shaped dough, is eaten for Day of the Dead?

Pan de muerto, 'bread of the dead', is not only left for the departed: families and friends share it themselves, at the graveside or around the home altar.

What is the elegantly dressed female skeleton, from a 1910s satirical broadside, that became a symbol of the Day of the Dead?

La Catrina began as a jab at Mexicans who aped European fashion: a grinning skull in a plumed hat, printed on a 1913 broadside whose verses warned that today's powdered ladies will end up as skulls.

Which international distinction did Mexico's Day of the Dead receive in 2008?

A UNESCO intangible heritage listing was granted in 2008; it describes families laying petals, candles and offerings along the path from the cemetery so the returning souls can find their way home.

Which paper craft represents the element of wind on an ofrenda?

Papel picado is so light that the slightest breeze stirs it, which is why it stands for wind; artisans chisel each design through dozens of stacked sheets of tissue paper at once.

Which of these items is traditionally placed on an altar to quench the thirst of returning spirits?

A glass of water is set out because the dead are believed to arrive thirsty after the long journey; the water also stands for one of the four elements that an ofrenda brings together.

Which fragrant tree resin is burned as incense on Day of the Dead ofrendas?

Copal smoke is believed to purify the space around the altar and carry prayers upward; the resin was burned in ceremonies across Mesoamerica long before the Spanish arrived.

What are the decorated sugar or clay skulls, often bearing a person's name, called?

Calaveras made of sugar are given to living friends as well as left for the dead, with the recipient's own name iced across the forehead as a joke about what awaits everyone.

Which hot, thick masa drink is poured for the living and set on altars for the dead?

Atole, a hot corn drink thickened with masa, takes its name from Nahuatl ātōlli; it is served to mourners and set on altars for returning souls.

The holiday's dates came to coincide with which two Catholic feasts?

All Saints' and All Souls' Days fall on November 1 and 2; in Mexico the spirits of dead children are said to return a full day ahead of the adults, who follow on November 2.

Which 1947 novel follows an alcoholic British consul through a single Day of the Dead in Mexico?

Under the Volcano tracks Geoffrey Firmin's last day, the Day of the Dead of 1938, beneath Popocatépetl; its author Malcolm Lowry had himself arrived in Cuernavaca on the holiday two years earlier.

Which savoury dish, steamed in big batches, is among the most common foods made for Day of the Dead offerings?

Tamales feed both sides of the reunion: families steam them by the dozen, set some on the altar for the dead and share the rest among the living.

Which Mexican name for the holiday's orange flower comes from Nahuatl for 'twenty flower'?

Cempasúchil comes from Nahuatl cempōhualxōchitl, 'twenty flower'; twenty was the base of the Aztec counting system, which made it a number of completeness.

Lake Pátzcuaro's fishermen, who paddle out by candlelight on the Night of the Dead, cast wing-shaped nets named after which creature?

Butterflies give the nets their name: in candlelit canoes off the island of Janitzio, the fishermen raise and dip the wide mariposa nets in a display staged for the Night of the Dead.

Which James Bond film's opening inspired Mexico City's first official Día de Muertos parade in 2016?

Spectre (2015) opens with a Day of the Dead parade that did not exist; the interest it stirred led the government to stage a real one through the capital in October 2016.

Which Aztec goddess, the 'Lady of the Dead,' ruled the underworld and watched over bones?

Mictecacíhuatl was said to swallow the stars by day as well as guard the bones of the dead, and the Aztec feasts of the dead held in her honour lasted a month.

In Ocotepec, Morelos, which families open their homes to all visitors for the Day of the Dead?

The newly bereaved build an 'ofrenda nueva' for a relative who died in the past year; visitors bring or light a candle for the dead and are given food and a hot drink in return.

What do families leave out on the Day of the Dead so that visiting spirits can rest after their long journey?

Pillows and blankets are set out so the dead can rest after the trip; in some towns families also spend the whole night beside relatives' graves.

Toys are brought to the ofrenda for the dead known by which affectionate name?

Los angelitos, 'the little angels', are deceased children, remembered on November 1 with toys and sweets on the ofrenda; adults instead receive bottles of tequila or mezcal.

Which Mexican state is known for its Day of the Dead cemetery vigils, especially on the island of Janitzio?

Michoacán's island of Janitzio draws crowds for its vigil: Purépecha families build an altar on the grave itself and sit beside it through the night, praying by candlelight.

On the sweet bread baked for Day of the Dead, the bone-shaped strips arranged in a ring are said to portray what?

The circle of life is the usual reading; the knob on top is said to be a skull and the strips bones, so the loaf stands for the dead person and eating it is a playful way of 'eating the dead'.

The orange flower of Day of the Dead altars belongs to which botanical genus?

Tagetes erecta grows wild in central Mexico, where the Aztecs both gathered and cultivated it for medicine, ceremony and decoration long before it filled Day of the Dead markets.

In which country do Kichwa families gather in the cemetery with food for the Day of the Dead?

Ecuador's Kichwa families spend the day in the cemetery sharing food with their dead, and their spiced purple drink, colada morada, now appears on restaurant menus across the country each season.

Which candied sweet, simmered in dark piloncillo syrup with cinnamon, is a Day of the Dead classic?

Calabaza en tacha is pumpkin slowly candied with raw cane sugar and cinnamon until dark and sticky; wedges go onto ofrendas for the dead and into bowls for the family.

Historically, what was the holiday's main alcoholic drink?

Pulque, the milky fermented sap of the agave, was central Mexico's everyday drink until beer overtook it in the 20th century; today's altars more often hold tequila or mezcal.

Which ghost-filled José Zorrilla play is traditionally staged in Spain for the holiday?

Don Juan Tenorio ends among tombs, statues and ghosts in a cemetery, which is why theatres in Spain and Mexico have long staged it at the start of November.

Which 1998 adventure game, inspired by Mexico's Day of the Dead folk art, follows a travel agent through a film-noir afterlife?

Grim Fandango, directed by Tim Schafer, mixes Aztec ideas of the afterlife with film noir: its hero sells travel packages to the newly dead, and good deeds in life earn a more comfortable crossing.

In the Yucatán, which dish of masa and pork lard is prepared around November 1 and eaten over the following days?

Mukbil pollo is a giant pie of masa, lard, chicken and pork, wrapped in banana leaves and buried for hours in a pit oven, then dug up and shared.

Día de las Ñatitas, the 'Day of the Skulls' held in early November, is a festival of which Bolivian city?

La Paz hosts the Día de las Ñatitas in early November, when families carry the actual skulls of relatives, the ñatitas, to the General Cemetery to be blessed and decorated.

What Spanish verb names the tradition of staying up all night with the dead?

Velar means to keep vigil: families 'velan' the dead by staying up all night at the altar or graveside; historian Elsa Malvido argued even this vigil is a relatively recent custom.

Tucson, Arizona has held which annual Day of the Dead-inspired event since 1990?

Tucson's All Souls' Procession began in 1990 as a performance piece by local artist Susan Johnson, who was grieving her father; today marchers drop written prayers into an urn that is burned.

Which muralist gave the elegant skull etching a full-length body in his 1946-47 Alameda Park fresco?

Diego Rivera painted her arm in arm with her printmaker and holding the hand of a boy who is Rivera himself, and swapped her society gown for an indigenous Tehuana skirt.

In Mexican tradition, October 28 is set aside for the souls of people who died in what way?

Suddenly, by accident or violence: tradition sorts the dead by how they died and at what age and gives each group its own day, so these souls are received days before the children and adults of November 1 and 2.

In Aztec belief, how long did a dead soul's journey through the underworld to its final rest take?

Four years was the length of the soul's road through nine levels of trials, which is why the living offered food, water and tools to help the traveller on the way.

Which dog-headed Aztec god, namesake of Mexico's hairless dog breed, guided the dead through the underworld?

Xolotl, the dog-headed twin of Quetzalcoatl, led souls past the underworld's perils; the Xoloitzcuintli takes his name, and such dogs were once buried with their owners to guide them.

In Guatemala, what do some families attach to the strings of the holiday's kites?

Some families tie notes for the dead to the strings of the giant kites flown on November 1; the kites are seen as a line of communication with heaven and a guide for spirits returning to earth.

Historian Elsa Malvido, rejecting any indigenous origin, traces the tradition entirely to where?

Malvido traced the holiday entirely to medieval Europe, pointing to altars for the dead, skull-shaped sweets and bone-shaped bread made on the same date across Catholic southern Europe.

Which disaster forced the fresco that gave the elegant skull her full figure out of its hotel and into a museum?

An earthquake left the Hotel del Prado condemned in 1985, so the fresco painted for its restaurant was restored and moved to a museum built for it beside the Alameda.

On an ofrenda, four candles set out in the shape of a cross are said to mark what?

The four compass points are marked by candles set in a cross; the flames, which also stand for the element of fire, are there to light the souls' way back to the family home.

Why do some Day of the Dead dancers wear shells on their clothing?

To wake the dead with noise: the shells rattle as the dancers move, and some celebrants go further and dress up as the departed relative they hope to rouse.

In the Yucatán, the celebration is known as Hanal Pixan, a Maya phrase meaning what?

Hanal Pixán means 'food for the souls' in Yucatec Maya (hanal, food; pixán, soul); the main days run from October 31 to November 2, but offerings of regional dishes go on to the end of the month.

On the wooden rack called a tzompantli, the Aztecs displayed the skulls of which people?

Sacrificed war captives, for the most part: their skulls were threaded on poles for public display, and some writers see an echo of the rack in the rows of sugar skulls sold each autumn.

In which Mexican region is the Day of the Dead celebrated as Xantolo?

La Huasteca's Xantolo fills the region's towns with dancers in skull and devil masks moving to son huasteco music, and its arched altars stay up through November.

Which marzipan rolls filled with egg yolk are a Spanish treat for 1 November?

Huesos de santo, 'saint's bones', are tubes of white marzipan filled with sweet egg yolk, made to look like a bone with its marrow and sold by Spanish pastry shops at the start of November.

Which 2017 Pixar movie features Dia de los Muertos as a central theme?

Coco follows Miguel, a boy who is carried into the Land of the Dead on Día de los Muertos and must win his ancestors' blessing to get home before sunrise.

Which Vodou spirit of the dead is honoured at Haiti's Fèt Gede in early November?

Baron Samedi, head of the Gede family of spirits, is pictured in a top hat and tailcoat like a corpse dressed for burial; at Fèt Gede those possessed by the Gede drink raw rum steeped with hot peppers.

Which Mexico City artisan created the first papier-mâché alebrijes in the 1930s?

Pedro Linares, a Mexico City maker of papier-mâché Judas figures, said the creatures and their name came to him in a fever dream in 1936, when he was 30 and gravely ill.

What word do Mexicans commonly use for a cemetery?

Panteón, from the Pantheon, Rome's temple of all the gods, can mean a grand family tomb, but in Mexico it names the whole cemetery, so Day of the Dead vigils happen 'en el panteón'.

What is the dish of salt on an ofrenda most often said to stand for?

Purification of the soul is the usual reading of the salt, an emblem of purity on the altar, though some families simply call it the spice of life and set it out as a staple of the table.

In which Yucatán Peninsula state is Pomuch, where families clean the bones of their dead each Hanal Pixán?

Pomuch, a town in Campeche, keeps the ritual of removing relatives' bones from their niches, cleaning them and laying them on embroidered cloths for Hanal Pixán, the Maya Day of the Dead.

What is the petate sometimes laid beside or on an ofrenda?

A woven palm mat, the petate is Mexico's traditional bedroll, the mat people slept on, so one laid at the altar offers the visiting soul a place to lie down after its journey.

In Aztec belief, which paradise received those who died by drowning or lightning?

Tlalocan, the lush realm of the rain god Tlaloc, received those whose deaths were linked to water: drowning, lightning, dropsy and similar causes, sparing them the long journey through the underworld.

Which Mexico City square hosts the capital's giant public ofrenda?

The Zócalo, the capital's vast central square, became the stage for large-scale Day of the Dead installations around 2000, and the parade born of a spy film's opening scene now passes through it too.

What are the 'literary skulls' written each Day of the Dead in Mexico?

Mock epitaphs for living people poke fun at politicians and other public figures, and each November they are printed in newspapers, read aloud and broadcast on radio and television.

What do families typically do at cemeteries during Dia de los Muertos?

Families clean and decorate the graves with flowers, candles and food; in places such as Pátzcuaro and Janitzio they then spend the whole night beside them.

What is the purpose of placing food and drink on the ofrenda?

To feed the visiting spirits: the dead are believed to take in only the aroma and essence of the dishes, and the food on an altar is left untouched while they visit.

Which velvety flower, called terciopelo in Mexico, joins the orange blooms on Day of the Dead graves and altars?

Cockscomb (Celosia), named in English for its rooster-comb crest, is Mexico's terciopelo, the 'velvet flower'; it is heaped on graves and altars beside the orange blooms.

In Guatemala, the giant kites flown for the dead on November 1 are called what?

Barriletes is the word for kites in Guatemala and parts of Central America; the giant ones flown over the cemeteries of Sumpango and Santiago Sacatepéquez are seen as a line of contact with the departed.

In Pixar's 2017 Land of the Dead film, what makes a spirit fade away for good?

Being forgotten by all the living brings a spirit's final fading: Héctor is desperate to get his photo onto an altar because his daughter, the last person who remembers him, is beginning to forget.

The Aztecs honoured women who died in childbirth as the equals of which other group of the dead?

Fallen warriors: the Aztecs saw labour as a battle in which a woman captured her child's spirit, so those who died giving birth were deified as Cihuateteo, 'divine women', and linked with the setting sun.

Which Yucatecan city holds the Paseo de las Ánimas, a candlelit procession of the souls?

Mérida's Paseo de las Ánimas has thousands of participants in skull make-up walk from the General Cemetery to the San Juan neighbourhood, past ofrendas lining the route, for Hanal Pixán.

The Day of the Dead falls at the end of the yearly growing cycle of which Mexican crop?

Maize is the country's main food crop, and families hold that the dead, if well received, bring prosperity such as an abundant harvest, and misfortune if neglected.

Brazil observes its day for the dead on November 2 under what name?

Dia de Finados, also called Dia dos Mortos, is a public holiday in Brazil; families carry flowers and candles to cemeteries and churches in what is meant as a positive honouring of the dead, not a day of gloom.

Which flower is steeped to make agua de Jamaica, the chilled ruby-red drink served at Day of the Dead tables?

Hibiscus calyces are steeped, sweetened and poured over ice; despite the drink's name and its place among Mexico's everyday aguas frescas, the plant is said to have reached the Americas from Africa with enslaved people.

Who wrote The Labyrinth of Solitude, with its chapter 'All Saints, Day of the Dead'?

Octavio Paz's 1950 book-length essay The Labyrinth of Solitude traces Mexicans' view of death and fiesta to a deep solitude, and treats the holiday as a survival of ancient Aztec festivals of death.

What is the moulded sugar-paste craft behind Day of the Dead skulls and coffins, centred on Toluca?

Alfeñique, a paste of powdered sugar, lemon and a plant gum, is moulded into skulls, coffins and animals; the craft came with the Spanish, who had the sweet and its name from the Arabs of al-Andalus.

Which painter made the 1938 work 'Girl with Death Mask (She Plays Alone)'?

Frida Kahlo hid the girl's face behind a skull mask and put a yellow flower in her hands; the child is often read as Kahlo herself, and the tiny picture once belonged to film star Dolores del Río.

Which company dropped a 2013 bid to trademark 'Día de los Muertos' after public backlash?

Disney sought the trademark in 2013 for merchandise tied to a planned film and dropped it about a week later after an outcry; Pixar then hired Lalo Alcaraz, the cartoonist who led the protest, as a consultant.

Which 2014 animated film, produced by Guillermo del Toro, is set around the Day of the Dead?

The Book of Life, directed by Jorge R. Gutierrez, sends Manolo, a bullfighter who would rather be a musician, into the Land of the Remembered after a wager between two rulers of the dead.

Oaxaca's ground-level Day of the Dead pictures called tapetes are made from which coloured material?

Oaxaca's tapetes are pictures laid out on the ground in coloured sand, often with seeds, sawdust and flower petals worked in, and they are swept away once the celebrations end.

The Festival de Tradiciones de Vida y Muerte is held at which Riviera Maya park?

Xcaret, the eco-archaeological park near Playa del Carmen, has staged the Festival de Tradiciones de Vida y Muerte around the Day of the Dead since the mid-2000s, featuring music, theatre and a guest state's altars.

What are calacas?

Skeleton figures and masks called calacas are almost always shown joyous rather than mournful: dressed up, dancing and playing instruments, as a picture of a happy afterlife.

In larger Mexican cities, costumed children knock on doors asking for a small gift known as what?

Children ask '¿me da mi calaverita?' and receive sweets or a few coins; the custom resembles trick-or-treating but carries no threat of mischief if the householder gives nothing.

What is the male skeleton figure in skull make-up and top hat called?

The Catrin takes his name from Mexican slang for a dandy, a stylishly dressed gentleman; 'El Catrín' is also card number four in the Lotería deck.

In Pixar's 2017 Land of the Dead film, what kind of creature is the alebrije Pepita?

A winged jaguar with ram's horns and eagle talons in the Land of the Dead, Pepita is an ordinary cat among the living; the film turns alebrijes, a folk-art invention, into spirit guides.

Which song from Pixar's 2017 Land of the Dead film won the Best Original Song Oscar?

'Remember Me' is first heard as a showy mariachi number, then revealed as a lullaby a father wrote for his daughter; it won the Oscar for the songwriting team behind Frozen.

Whose 1521 conquest of the Aztec capital brought to Mexico the Catholic feasts on which Day of the Dead now falls?

Hernán Cortés took Tenochtitlan in 1521, and the friars who followed brought the Church's November feasts for the dead; how much of the older Aztec rites survives inside them is still argued by historians.

Which Purépecha folk dance has masked young men hobble on canes, then leap about?

The Danza de los Viejitos is danced by boys and young men, not elders: in old-man masks and wooden-soled sandals that turn their stamping into percussion, they send up the stoop of age.

Self Help Graphics' 1970s Day of the Dead celebrations popularised the holiday in which US city?

Self Help Graphics & Art, a Chicano print workshop started in an East Los Angeles garage by a Franciscan nun, staged its Day of the Dead celebrations from the 1970s; Hollywood Forever Cemetery later added its own.

In Pixar's 2017 Land of the Dead film, which late singing star does Miguel idolise?

Ernesto de la Cruz, the silver-screen singer Miguel worships, turns out to have poisoned his songwriting partner Héctor and stolen his songs, including the one that made him famous.

What does the flowered arch over an ofrenda symbolise?

The doorway to the world of the dead is what the arch of reeds and flowers stands for: the souls are meant to pass through it, and families hang it with fruit and sweets for them.

What happens to the food on an ofrenda once the celebration ends?

The family eats it once the souls have gone, though many say the dead have already consumed its essence, leaving food that looks the same but has lost its nourishment.

Which Oaxacan mole, made with chocolate and six kinds of chili, is the best known and most complex of the famous seven?

Mole negro gets its colour from chilhuacle and other chilies charred almost black before grinding, plus chocolate; it is the best known of Oaxaca's seven moles and a fixture on Day of the Dead tables and altars.

What are Sicily's painted marzipan 'sweets of the dead' called?

Frutta martorana is marzipan painted to look like fruit; it is said to have begun when nuns of Palermo's Martorana convent hung marzipan fruit on their bare trees to impress a visiting archbishop.

Which pine-nut-studded sweets are eaten in Catalonia for Tots Sants on 1 November?

Panellets are little marzipan cakes rolled in pine nuts; at the Castanyada, Catalonia's feast on 1 November, they are eaten with roast chestnuts, sweet potatoes and a glass of sweet moscatell wine.

What are the Andean bread figures shaped like infants, eaten with colada morada, called?

Guaguas de pan, 'bread babies', are sweet loaves iced to look like infants; families exchange them, give them to godchildren and in rural cemeteries leave them as offerings on November 2.

Which chilled Guatemalan salad of dozens of meats, cheeses and pickled vegetables is made for the Day of the Dead?

Fiambre is said to have begun at the graveside: families carried dishes to the cemetery for their dead, the plates got shared and mixed, and the mixture became one enormous cold salad.

What do Chinese Filipinos additionally burn during Undás, the Philippine observance?

Joss sticks and paper offerings, known as kim, are burned by Chinese Filipino families at Undás, when Filipinos gather at family tombs with flowers, candles and food, often staying through the night.