Dia de los Muertos
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82 free Dia De Los Muertos trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free Dia de los Muertos trivia questions with answers. Dia de los Muertos trivia lives in two places on BrainPickle. This page is the shorter set; the main quiz is Day of the Dead trivia, with our deepest question pool on the topic and a source behind every answer.
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Q 01Marigolds are said to guide souls to the altar by their bright colour and what else?
Their strong scent
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.
Q 02The original 1910s print of La Catrina shows only a skull and shoulders, topped by what?
A feathered hat
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.
Q 03Which animation studio made Coco, the 2017 film set during Día de los Muertos?
Pixar
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.
Q 04Which vegetable is candied in spiced sugar syrup as a classic sweet for the holiday's altars?
Pumpkin
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.
Q 05Which Yucatán dish is baked in an underground pit for the holiday and eaten over the following days?
Mukbil pollo
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.
Q 06What tree-resin incense is burned beside the ofrenda during Dia de los Muertos to guide the spirits home?
Copal
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.
Q 07November 1 of the holiday is set aside for which group of the departed?
Children (angelitos)
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.
Q 08What is the Aztec name for the underworld or Land of the Dead?
Mictlan
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.
Q 09Which muralist gave the skeleton lady a full body in 'Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park'?
Diego Rivera
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.
Q 10What are calaveras literarias?
Mock epitaphs for living people
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.
Q 11The Alumbrada, when a cemetery glows with candles on November 2, climaxes festivities in which Mexico City community?
San Andrés Mixquic
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.
Q 12What do families typically do at cemeteries during Dia de los Muertos?
Clean and decorate the graves
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.
Q 13What is the purpose of the food and drink placed on the ofrenda?
Q 21In Aztec belief, the dead needed which animal's help to cross the underworld's wide river?
A dog
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.
Q 22Which sugar-paste craft, centred on Toluca, produces the holiday's moulded skulls, rabbits and coffins?
Alfeñique
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.
Q 23How do families around Lake Pátzcuaro famously reach the island cemetery of Janitzio for the holiday?
In candlelit canoes
To feed the visiting spirits
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.
Q 14How do papel picado artisans cut one design through dozens of stacked tissue sheets at once?
With hammer and chisels
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.
Q 15Why is a glass of water traditionally left on the ofrenda?
To quench the thirst of returning souls
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.
Q 16In Coco, what makes a spirit in the Land of the Dead vanish for good?
Being forgotten by all the living
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.
Q 17In Coco, what must Miguel receive from a dead relative to return to the Land of the Living?
A blessing
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.
Q 18What do the dough strips across the top of the holiday's sweet bread represent?
The bones of the deceased
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.
Q 19The Día de los Muertos period also marks the completion of the annual cultivation cycle of which Mexican crop?
Maize
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.
Q 20Which Mexican state is famous for the Purépecha Dia de los Muertos vigils on the island of Janitzio?
Michoacan
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 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.
Q 24Salt placed on the ofrenda chiefly symbolizes what?
Purification
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.
Q 25Which 2014 animated film produced by Guillermo del Toro is set on the Day of the Dead?
The Book of Life
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.
Q 26Which pre-Hispanic drink of fermented agave sap is traditionally set out for the adult dead?
Pulque
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.
Q 27In Oaxaca, elaborate ground-level pictures called tapetes are laid out for the holiday using what material?
Sand
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.
Q 28Mexico City staged its first big Day of the Dead parade in 2016 after one was invented for which James Bond film?
Spectre
Spectre invented a parade for 007 to chase a villain through, and a year later tourism officials staged a real one.
Q 29What are calacas?
Skeleton figures and masks
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.
Q 30In Mexico, costumed children knock on doors asking for what small gift of sweets or money?
A calaverita
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.