Altars, marigolds and a parade through the middle of the city that was invented for a James Bond film and then became real.
Día de Muertos is not Mexican Halloween. It is a two-day observance — 1 November for children who have died, 2 November for adults — in which the dead are understood to return, and are welcomed.
UNESCO listed it as intangible cultural heritage in 2008.
The ofrenda
The altar built at home, at work and in public buildings, in tiers.
Cempasúchil — marigolds — whose scent and colour are said to guide the dead. Papel picado, cut tissue paper. Candles, one for each soul. Water, to slake thirst after the journey. Salt. Copal incense.
Pan de muerto, a sweet bread with bone-shaped decoration. Sugar skulls with names iced on them, given to the living as often as the dead. And the food and drink the dead person liked — cigarettes, a bottle of tequila, a favourite mole.
Photographs of the dead, at the top.
The parade — and where it came from
The Desfile de Día de Muertos along Paseo de la Reforma draws well over a million people and involves giant skeletal puppets, floats and thousands of costumed participants.
It did not exist before 2016.
The opening sequence of the Bond film Spectre (2015) was shot in Mexico City and depicted an enormous Day of the Dead parade through the Zócalo. There had never been one. Visitors arrived expecting it, and the city government decided to create it the following year.
It is now a genuine annual event that a great many Mexicans enjoy, and it is also an invention with a traceable origin. Both things are worth knowing.
The real thing
In the cemeteries.
San Andrés Mixquic, in the far south-east of the city, is the best known — the whole village gathers in the graveyard on the night of 1 November, cleaning and decorating graves, with candles, marigolds, food and music until dawn. It is called La Alumbrada.
It is crowded with visitors now, and it remains a genuine vigil by families for their own dead. Go quietly, do not photograph people at graves without asking, and buy from the stalls.
Xochimilco, Tláhuac and Milpa Alta hold their own observances.
Elsewhere in the city
Enormous public ofrendas in the Zócalo, at the UNAM campus, and at the Anthropology Museum.
Catrinas — the elegant skeleton in a feathered hat, drawn by José Guadalupe Posada around 1910 as a satire on Mexicans aspiring to European gentility, and named by Rivera — are everywhere, and face painting is done on every corner.
Practicalities
Book accommodation months ahead. This is now peak season in Mexico City.
The parade date moves and is usually the Saturday before 2 November. The city publishes the route.
Nights in the cemeteries are cold at 2,240 metres. Take a coat.
