82 Fun Facts About Dia De Los Muertos

Marigolds are said to guide souls to the altar by their bright colour and what else?

Their strong scent is said to lead the souls from the grave to the family home, which is why petals are often strewn in a trail right up to the altar.

The original 1910s print of La Catrina shows only a skull and shoulders, topped by what?

A feathered hat, piled with flowers, is all the print shows above her bare skull; the full body, dress and boa arrived in a mural painted more than thirty years later.

Which animation studio made Coco, the 2017 film set during Día de los Muertos?

Pixar opened Coco in Mexico on the weekend before the holiday, almost a month ahead of its US release, after a premiere at the Morelia film festival.

Which vegetable is candied in spiced sugar syrup as a classic sweet for the holiday's altars?

Pumpkin, simmered in sugar syrup with cinnamon, becomes calabaza en tacha; it is in season as the holiday arrives, so it goes straight from the autumn harvest to the altar.

Which Yucatán dish is baked in an underground pit for the holiday and eaten over the following days?

Mukbil pollo, a large chicken-and-masa pie wrapped in banana leaves, is buried in a pit oven for hours and then dug up; 'mukbil' is Yucatec Maya for buried.

What tree-resin incense is burned beside the ofrenda during Dia de los Muertos to guide the spirits home?

Copal was burned in Mesoamerican ceremonies long before the Spanish came; on the altar its smoke is said to carry prayers and draw the souls home.

November 1 of the holiday is set aside for which group of the departed?

Children who have died are honoured on November 1, Día de los Angelitos, with toys and sweets on the altar; the adult dead are welcomed the following day.

What is the Aztec name for the underworld or Land of the Dead?

Mictlan was the Aztec underworld ruled by Mictlantecuhtli and his consort; the dead faced a long journey of trials to reach it, with the psychopomp Xolotl aiding them along the way.

Which muralist gave the skeleton lady a full body in 'Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park'?

Diego Rivera painted it in 1946–47 for the Hotel del Prado; when the 1985 earthquake wrecked the hotel, the whole wall was cut out and moved to a museum built for it.

What are calaveras literarias?

Mock epitaphs for living people, usually in rhyme, tease friends and politicians as though they were already in the grave; Mexican newspapers have printed them for the holiday since the 19th century.

The Alumbrada, when a cemetery glows with candles on November 2, climaxes festivities in which Mexico City community?

San Andrés Mixquic, a farming village on the city's southeastern edge, tolls its old convent bells as families carry candles and flowers to the churchyard graves for the Alumbrada.

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

Families clean and decorate the graves with marigolds, candles and food, and in some towns they stay on to keep vigil beside them until dawn.

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

To feed the visiting spirits, who are believed to take in the aroma and essence of the dishes after their long journey home, rather than the food itself.

How do papel picado artisans cut one design through dozens of stacked tissue sheets at once?

With hammer and chisels: the maker lays a template over a stack of forty or fifty sheets and punches the design through them all, so one pass yields dozens of identical banners.

Why is a glass of water traditionally left on the ofrenda?

To quench the thirst of returning souls after the long journey to the land of the living; some altars also carry a washbasin, soap and a towel so the spirit can freshen up.

In Coco, what makes a spirit in the Land of the Dead vanish for good?

Being forgotten by all the living is the end: Héctor's friend Chicharrón fades away once nobody alive remembers him, and Héctor fears he is next.

In Coco, what must Miguel receive from a dead relative to return to the Land of the Living?

A blessing, given on a marigold petal, sends him home; Imelda offers hers only if he gives up music, so Miguel runs off to find another ancestor.

What do the dough strips across the top of the holiday's sweet bread represent?

The bones of the deceased, laid around a central knob usually read as the skull, turn the loaf into a picture of the person it honours, to be shared and eaten in their memory.

The Día de los Muertos period also marks the completion of the annual cultivation cycle of which Mexican crop?

Maize is gathered in around the time of the holiday, and it runs through the offerings, from warm masa drinks such as atole to kernels laid out in patterns by the altar.

Which Mexican state is famous for the Purépecha Dia de los Muertos vigils on the island of Janitzio?

Michoacan's Lake Pátzcuaro holds the island of Janitzio, where Purépecha families keep vigil beside graves covered in candles, marigolds and food for their dead.

In Aztec belief, the dead needed which animal's help to cross the underworld's wide river?

A dog was sacrificed and buried with its owner to carry the soul across; Coco's Dante, a hairless Xoloitzcuintle who follows Miguel through the Land of the Dead, plays the same part.

Which sugar-paste craft, centred on Toluca, produces the holiday's moulded skulls, rabbits and coffins?

Alfeñique reached Mexico from Spain, where the pulled-sugar sweet went back to Moorish times; Toluca now gives it a fair of its own each autumn, the Feria del Alfeñique.

How do families around Lake Pátzcuaro famously reach the island cemetery of Janitzio for the holiday?

In candlelit canoes: families paddle across with a single flame burning in each bow, then keep watch beside the graves with flowers and food for their dead.

Salt placed on the ofrenda chiefly symbolizes what?

Purification: salt is meant to keep the departed from being corrupted on the journey to and from the altar, and some families lay it out in the shape of a small cross.

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

The Book of Life follows Manolo, a bullfighter who would rather play guitar, into the Land of the Remembered to win back his love María; Jorge R. Gutiérrez directed it.

Which pre-Hispanic drink of fermented agave sap is traditionally set out for the adult dead?

Pulque is milky and only mildly alcoholic because it is fermented, never distilled; today a bottle of tequila or mezcal often stands beside it, or whatever the departed liked best.

In Oaxaca, elaborate ground-level pictures called tapetes are laid out for the holiday using what material?

Tapetes de arena are pictures laid out in colored sand, with seeds, sawdust and flower petals often worked in; they are swept away once the celebrations end.

Mexico City staged its first big Day of the Dead parade in 2016 after one was invented for which James Bond film?

Spectre invented a parade for 007 to chase a villain through, and a year later tourism officials staged a real one.

What are calacas?

Calacas are skeleton figures and masks, from clay figurines to costumed dancers; they are generally shown joyful rather than mournful, dancing or playing music in festive dress.

In Mexico, costumed children knock on doors asking for what small gift of sweets or money?

A calaverita, literally a little skull, is what the children ask for, getting sweets or coins; it works like trick-or-treating, minus the threat of mischief if nothing is given.

Which warm, thick chocolate corn-masa drink is a staple of the holiday and of Las Posadas?

Champurrado is atole enriched with chocolate and whisked to a froth with a wooden molinillo rolled between the palms; it is drunk hot when the weather turns cold, at the holiday and at Las Posadas.

The Catholic feasts behind the holiday reached Mexico after Spain's 1521 conquest of which Aztec capital?

Tenochtitlan fell to Cortés and his Indigenous allies in 1521; friars followed with All Saints' and All Souls' days, and Mexico City rose on the island capital's ruins.

Which insect's autumn arrival in central Mexico coincides with the holiday and has become one of its symbols?

The monarch butterfly reaches its winter forests in central Mexico around November 1 and 2, so its return is tied to the holiday, and revellers parade dressed as one.

On an ofrenda, what does the photograph of the deceased do?

It marks who will visit the altar, naming the guest the offerings are for; Coco turned the custom into a rule, with no soul able to cross unless a picture is on display.

Self Help Graphics helped make Day of the Dead a major event in which city?

Self Help Graphics & Art in East Los Angeles began its Day of the Dead celebrations in the early 1970s; Los Angeles's Hollywood Forever Cemetery later added a large festival with altars to buried celebrities beside traditional ones.

On an ofrenda, the cut-paper banners represent which of the four elements?

Air: the tissue is so light that the faintest breeze sets it moving, and the delicate paper is also read as a sign of how fragile life is.

What does the flower-covered arch above an ofrenda's top tier symbolize?

The doorway to the world of the dead: the souls are said to pass under the arch to reach their offerings, so families cover it in marigolds and hang it with fruit and sweets.

What happens to the food on the ofrenda once the celebration is over?

The family eats it afterward; the spirits are believed to have already taken its essence, so what is left is thought to have lost its nourishment.

Which rich, slow-cooked sauce is a favourite dish to leave on the holiday's altars?

Mole is festive food, long in the making, so families cook it for their returning dead; Oaxaca alone is known as the land of the seven moles.

What is traditionally written in icing across the forehead of a sugar skull?

The recipient's name goes on the forehead because sugar skulls are given to the living as well as left for the dead, a sweet joke about where everyone ends up.

Before tissue paper, papel picado's Aztec forerunners were cut from amate, a paper made from what?

Tree bark, from fig and mulberry trees, was beaten into rough sheets that the Aztecs cut into spirit figures; the craft later moved to imported tissue, still called China paper in Mexico.

Which wrapped corn-dough dish is among the most common foods prepared for the holiday?

Tamales are masa wrapped in corn husks or banana leaves and steamed; they do double duty, eaten by the living and set out on ofrendas as offerings for the returning dead.

Besides anise, which flavoring classically perfumes the holiday's sweet bread?

Orange blossom water scents the dough; like its wheat, sugar and butter, the orange came over with the Spanish, so the holiday's signature loaf is built from Old World ingredients.

Which actor voiced Héctor, the ragged skeleton who guides Miguel, in Coco?

Gael García Bernal voiced Héctor, the forgotten musician who turns out to be Miguel's great-great-grandfather; Benjamin Bratt voiced the star Ernesto de la Cruz.

Agua de Jamaica, the ruby-red drink served at celebrations, is brewed from which flower?

Hibiscus 'flowers' in the drink are really the plant's fleshy red calyces, the cups that hold the petals; steeped, sweetened and poured over ice, they give agua de Jamaica its tart ruby colour.

In Coco, what business did Mamá Imelda start after banning music from her family?

Shoemaking became the family trade after Imelda's husband left to chase a music career and never came home, which is why Miguel is expected to make shoes rather than play guitar.

On November 1, Guatemalans famously fly what to help spirits find their way back to Earth?

The giant kites of towns such as Sumpango are flown beside the cemetery; some carry notes for the dead tied to their strings, as if the sky were a line to heaven.

Ecuador's guaguas de pan, eaten on November 2, are loaves shaped like what?

Babies in swaddling are what the loaves depict, guagua being the Andean word for an infant; families exchange them with relatives and godchildren and eat them with a thick spiced fruit drink.

In Coco, the alebrije Pepita is, in the Land of the Living, what ordinary animal?

A cat is all Pepita is among the living; in the Land of the Dead she becomes a towering spirit guide with a jaguar's head, a ram's horns, an eagle's wings and an iguana's tail.

The name La Calavera Catrina describes a skull of what kind of woman?

Dapper, or elegant, is what 'catrina' means, the feminine of catrín, a dandy; the etching mocked wealthy women of around 1910 who dressed in European finery.

In Coco, the Rivera family's hometown is named for which saint?

Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians, which gives the home town of the Riveras, a family that has banned music for generations, a pointedly ironic name.

Dia de Finados, a public holiday on November 2, is observed in which country?

Brazil keeps Dia de Finados as a national holiday, when families take flowers and candles to the cemeteries and churches and pray for their dead.

The marigold's Nahuatl name, cempōhualxōchitl, literally means what?

Twenty flowers: twenty was the base of Nahuatl counting and also stood for 'many', so the name can be read as the flower of many blooms.

Tagetes erecta, the holiday's Mexico-native flower, is also confusingly known as what?

Tagetes erecta is widely sold as the African marigold although it is native to Mexico; the Aztecs grew it for medicine and ceremony, and the Spanish carried it to Europe after the conquest.

Which entertainment giant dropped its 2013 bid to trademark 'Día de los Muertos' after an online backlash?

Disney filed to trademark the holiday's name for merchandise around a planned film, backed down within days of the outcry, and later hired one of its critics, cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz, as a consultant on Coco.

In the 1998 game Grim Fandango, what job does Manny Calavera hold in the Land of the Dead?

Travel agent Manny Calavera sells the newly dead their passage across the Land of the Dead: the virtuous earn a seat on the Number Nine express, while the rest face a four-year walk.

Which 1950 Octavio Paz essay includes the chapter 'All Saints, Day of the Dead'?

The Labyrinth of Solitude gives a chapter to the fiesta, which Paz read as the heir of Aztec rites; the historian Elsa Malvido later rejected that lineage outright.

Around Lake Pátzcuaro, the holiday is usually referred to by what name?

Night of the Dead is the name because the heart of it is the vigil from November 1 into November 2, when families sit among candlelit graves until morning.

Guatemala's fiambre, made once a year for the Day of the Dead, is what kind of dish?

Fiambre is a chilled salad of cold cuts, pickled vegetables and cheeses that can run to dozens of ingredients; the story goes that it began when families' cemetery picnic dishes got mixed together.

In which Asian country is the All Saints–All Souls season known as Undás?

Undás in the Philippines sees families clean and repair tombs and often stay overnight at the cemetery, a custom shared with Mexico through the old Spanish Empire.

Each Day of the Dead season, Xochimilco's canals host a show about which legendary figure?

La Llorona, the weeping woman said to wander in search of her lost children, is played out on the water each autumn while the audience watches from trajinera boats.

What inspired Pedro Linares to create the first alebrijes in 1936?

A feverish illness left Linares unconscious and dreaming of a forest where rocks and clouds turned into strange beasts crying 'alebrijes'; once well, he modelled them in papier-mâché.

In Macario (1960), the woodcutter snubs God and the Devil but shares his turkey with whom?

Death gets a share because, as Macario tells him, when he appears there is no time for anything else, so the meal buys a little more life; God and the Devil can get what they want.

Which toymaker launched a Día de Muertos collector doll inspired by La Catrina in 2019?

Mattel dressed Barbie as La Catrina for a 2019 collector doll and followed it with a second in 2020, turning a skeleton first drawn to mock the rich into a luxury toy.

Yucatec Maya in Belize call the holiday Hanal Pixán, meaning what?

Food for the souls is the literal sense of the Yucatec Maya name; families begin well ahead by embroidering the cloths that will cover the table where the visiting dead are fed.

Ecuador's colada morada, drunk on November 2, is thickened with flour ground from what?

Purple corn flour thickens the drink, and Andean blackberries and mortiño berries darken it further; it is said to descend from pre-Columbian rites for the dead that Spanish rule recast as a Catholic offering.

Bolivia's Día de las Ñatitas, held in La Paz in early November, centers on what?

Human skulls kept at home, called ñatitas, are crowned with flowers and given cigarettes, coca leaves and alcohol in thanks for a year of protection; many once belonged to strangers, not relatives.

Aguascalientes's Festival de Calaveras honours which native son, the printmaker who created La Catrina?

José Guadalupe Posada was born in Aguascalientes and made his name illustrating cheap broadsides in Mexico City; the festival fills late October and early November with skeleton parades in his honour.

The Aztec dead bound for the underworld passed two mountains that did what?

Crashed together: the dead had to slip between the clashing peaks at just the right moment, one of the trials on a road through the underworld said to take four years.

Macario (1960), set on the holiday's eve, was the first Mexican film up for which award as best foreign-language film?

An Academy Award nomination for best foreign-language film, for 1960, made Macario the first Mexican picture so honoured; the Oscar itself went to Sweden's The Virgin Spring.

Which novel follows a British consul through Mexico's Day of the Dead?

Under the Volcano, by Malcolm Lowry, packs the Consul's final day in 1938 into eleven of its twelve chapters; the manuscript itself was pulled from a fire that burned down Lowry's cabin in 1944.

The 1913 broadside that first printed La Catrina mocked working-class women for selling which Spanish import?

Chickpeas, garbanzos in Spanish, gave the vendors their nickname; the verses sneered that they sold a Spanish bean instead of native foods and powdered their faces to pass as European.

In the 1947 Alameda Park fresco, La Catrina holds the hand of which small figure?

The muralist as a boy stands at the centre in short trousers, hand in hand with the skeleton, and he painted his grown-up wife just behind, a protective hand on the child's shoulder.

In Ocotepec, Morelos, bereaved households admit visitors who bring what token?

A small candle is the visitor's token of respect; the bereaved family feeds every caller in return, so crowds from nearby come early to eat and admire the new altars.

Huaquechula's towering white altars in Puebla are dedicated to whom?

Those who died in the past year each get a towering altar of their own, draped in white satin gathered to look like clouds; the older dead share the ordinary family ofrenda.

The Aztec paradise Tlalocan welcomed people who died in which way?

By drowning, or by lightning: those deaths belonged to the rain god Tlaloc, so the victims went to his paradise, while warriors followed the rising sun and most other people faced the long road below.

Which Spanish play with ghostly cemetery scenes is traditionally staged around the Day of the Dead?

Don Juan Tenorio (1844) ends in a graveyard, where statues stand over the tombs, a ghost shows the seducer the hourglass of his life running out and he repents at the last moment.

The Aztec lord of the dead was depicted wearing a necklace made of what?

Human eyeballs hung round the neck of the lord of the dead, who was shown as a blood-spattered skeleton with his jaw gaping to swallow the stars as they set.

Aztec myth says humans vary in height because the bones of the previous creation did what?

The bones broke when dropped in a pit, in the best-known telling: the feathered serpent god, fleeing with them, was startled by a quail and fell into a trap dug by the lord of the underworld.

In the 1947 Alameda Park fresco, La Catrina's feathered-snake boa evokes which Aztec god?

Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, is recalled by the plumed boa draped round her shoulders, a touch that ties the elegant skeleton to Mexico's ancient past.

In Huaquechula's altars, how is the deceased's photo traditionally meant to be viewed?

Reflected in a mirror is the only way the picture is meant to be seen; townspeople explain it variously as the doorway to the beyond, a sign of eternity or a reminder that the person is gone.

Historian Elsa Malvido called the modern holiday an invention of which 1930s president's era?

Lázaro Cárdenas's government, she argued, stripped a Catholic feast of its church trappings and dressed it in Aztec imagery to build a national identity; the customs themselves she traced to medieval Europe.