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In pictures, Mexico City's Day of the Dead parade (BBC)

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In pictures, Mexico City's Day of the Dead parade (BBC)

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A parade was held in Mexico City on Saturday evening to honour the start of the annual Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations.
It is only the third time a parade like this has been held in Mexico's capital.

It was launched in 2016, inspired by a similar scene set in the city in the James Bond film Spectre.

Organisers hoped the parade would serve as a tourist attraction for visitors looking to witness local celebrations.

This year the parade was themed around migration.

The city's government dedicated the parade to migrants who have lost their lives in transit, at a time when thousands from across Central America are currently travelling in a caravan through the country.

One part of the parade had people carrying parts of a border wall, which said (in Spanish): "On this side there is also a dream."

Día de Muertos is usually held on 2 November and is a time when families honour deceased loved ones in the belief their souls return to earth to be with them.

The sweet side of Mexico's Day of the Dead

Mexico's skeleton parade celebrates the dead

People celebrate it in different ways across Mexico's regions, and customs can vary from family to family.

Some honour their loved ones with candles, their favourite foods and floral tributes in cemeteries, while others build shrines in their own homes.

Skull imagery, costumes and body paint may also play a part - and these have become the iconic Day of the Dead images that have been exported around the world at Halloween time.

Catrina figures, which have a skeleton appearance and formal dress, featured prominently in Saturday's parade.

Halloween Day of the Dead makeover on trend

Day of The Dead comes to Russia

Despite the drizzly conditions, thousands attended the Mexico City event, which was also broadcast on television.

Local media report that 1,200 volunteers took part in the spectacle of colour, costume and music.

The parade acknowledged the region's past, including Aztec traditions like human sacrifice, and the migration routes of the early inhabitants of Central America.

Significant Mexican cultural figures, including singer Chavela Vargas and artist Frida Kahlo, were also honoured at the event.

A similar parade was also held in the city of Guadalajara, in western Mexico.

Organisers were expecting thousands of spectators at the event, which also had live music, artists and jugglers taking part.

In Los Angeles, California, people also dressed up in Day of the Dead-inspired costumes for the 19th annual event held in the famous Hollywood Forever cemetery.

All images copyright.

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A parade was held in Mexico City on Saturday evening to honour the start of the annual Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations. It is only the third time a parade like this has been held in Mexico's capital.

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COCO - Recuérdame (By: Carlos Rivera) - Letra

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Día de los Muertos: A Brief Overview (National Hispanic Cultural Center)

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Día de los Muertos: A Brief Overview (National Hispanic Cultural Center)

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How to make Papel Picado for Day of the Dead - Dia de los Muertos!

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How to make a Mexican paper flower for Day of the Dead

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cnn.com-Day of the Dead has everything to do with the afterlife love and those colorful skulls youve seen aro

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Alanna Ubach, Antonio Sol - La Llorona (From "Coco"/Sing-Along)

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Día de los Muertos. Cortometraje Animado. También mira a Yuya

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SF Chronicle Mission Culturals Arts Center Visual Gallery

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SF Chronicle Mission Culturals Arts Center Visual Gallery

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Photos: Día de los Muertos honors the dead virtually in San Francisco

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Behind the scenes of the 2020 Virtual Festival of Altars

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en la Ciudad de México

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18 Breathtaking Pictures of Día de los Muertos (Buzzfeed)

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18 Breathtaking Pictures of Día de los Muertos (Buzzfeed)

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The Day of the Dead marks the time of year where Mexicans across the globe honor their deceased loved ones through joyous celebrations, gifts of calaveras, and Mexican marigolds.

Posted on October 30, 2017, at 5:24 p.m. ET

Pedro Gonzalez Castillo / Getty Images

A woman sells the traditional pan de muerto, or dead bread, on Oct. 31, 2015, in Capula, Mexico.

BuzzFeed News' FinCEN Files investigation exposed massive financial corruption on a historic global scale. Want to support our journalism? Become a BuzzFeed News member.

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18 Breathtaking Pictures Of Día De Los Muertos

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Utilizamos cookies, próprios e de terceiros, que o reconhecem e identificam como um usuário único, para garantir a melhor experiência de navegação, personalizar conteúdo e anúncios, e melhorar o desempenho do nosso site e serviços.

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Mexico's Day of the Dead: 54 Breathtaking Photos of El Día de Muertos (Newsweek)

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Mexico's Day of the Dead: 54 Breathtaking Photos of El Día de Muertos (Newsweek)

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Mexico's Day of the Dead: 54 Breathtaking Photos of El Día de Muertos Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Mexico's Day of the Dead festival has become world-famous thanks to its striking skeleton costumes, flower-strewn altars and age-old rituals. The nationwide celebrations see crowds gather in the streets during the first days of November to honor their deceased loved ones.

Although skull face painting and skeleton motifs are common, their purpose is actually the opposite to the Anglosphere's Halloween celebrations, which take place the night before. Whereas Americans love to scare each other with their deathly costumes, Mexicans dress up in order to become more familiar with death, so they are more at peace when their time comes to pass on.

The Day of the Dead, or El Día de Muertos as it's known in Spanish, dates back to pre-Hispanic rituals. Back then, the summer celebrations centered on the Aztec goddess Mictecacihuatl, known as "Lady of the Dead," and lasted a whole month. When the Spanish colonists arrived, the holiday was blended with the Catholic holidays All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day and moved to November.

Celebrations vary from place to place. In some areas, people decorate grave sites in order to coax their dead relatives to return for a family reunion. Street parties can be found in most urban areas, with celebrants dressed in elaborate skeleton costumes or traditional clothes, and covered in flowers.

Children are often given skull-shaped candy known as Calaveritas. Calaveras, or decorated skulls, date back centuries. Engraver José Guadalupe Posada created a series of hugely popular skeleton engravings in the early 20th century, and his most famous, a woman in a feathery hat known as La Catrina, is now seen as the personification of the festival.

The celebration is so unique that in 2008, The Day of the Dead was inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. The festival begins with preparations on October 31, and ends with the final Day of the Dead celebrations on November 2.

These are some of the most stunning images from Mexico's famous festival.

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Mexico's Day of the Dead: 54 Breathtaking Photos of El Día de Muertos

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Mexico's Day of the Dead festival has become world-famous thanks to its striking skeleton costumes, flower-strewn altars and age-old rituals. The nationwide celebrations see crowds gather in the streets during the first days of November to honor their deceased loved ones.

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"Así vive Oaxaca la tradición del Día de los Muertos" (Telemundo)

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"Así vive Oaxaca la tradición del Día de los Muertos" (Telemundo)

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Así vive Oaxaca la tradición del Día de Muertos | Noticias Telemundo

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In-flight movie: El Día de los Muertos (Mis Cositas)

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In-flight movie: El Día de los Muertos (Mis Cositas)

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In-flight movie: El Dia de los Muertos en Mexico

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Día de los Muertos aka the Day of the Dead Has Nothing to Do With Halloween | NowThis

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Día de los Muertos Comes to Life Across the Mexican Diaspora (NPR)

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Día de los Muertos Comes to Life Across the Mexican Diaspora (NPR)

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Decorative sugar skulls line the front of the colorful, four-tiered altar. C empasúchiles in bloom are scattered between painted skeletons, unlit candles and plates of food resting on pink papel picado, an intricately designed tissue paper.

Three banners hang above the display. In the center, La Catrina, the female skeletal figure that has become an icon for the occasion, is painted with a declaration: Día De Muertos. Day of the Dead.

Adolfo Arguello came to the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C., to admire this lavish Day of the Dead altar and note the ofrendas he was missing for his altar at home. It's the first one he and his wife, who moved to D.C. about a year ago, will have in their home - and the first Day of the Dead holiday for their 7-month-old daughter, Maia.

"I want her to understand what it means to my culture," he says, looking at the grand display.

Day of the Dead is traditionally celebrated in Mexico on Nov. 1 and 2 - All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, respectively. Celebrants make ofrendas, or offerings, to the spirits of loved ones who have died and leave them at their gravesites or place them on makeshift altars at home.

Día de los Muertos has its roots in Pre-Columbian cultures and beliefs. Before the Spanish arrived in what is today Mexico, the Aztec gave offerings to their deceased ancestors as part of their death rituals. After the Spanish came, the celebration morphed to incorporate Catholic beliefs and practices, creating this deeply religious, syncretic tradition.

When he was young, Arguello and his family celebrated the holiday with an altar in their house in Chiapas, Mexico, and would visit his grandfather's tomb. There, they would bring him his favorite food and wine, and play his favorite music while sharing stories about their time with him. Now, Arguello wants his multicultural daughter, who was born in the U.S. to parents of Mexican and Dominican descent, to have a piece of the tradition, too.
Shaping and sharing Mexican culture
Over the last several years, a growing number of people of Mexican and other Latin American descent have celebrated Day of the Dead throughout the U.S. The Mexican diaspora to the states during the 1990s through the early 2000s largely contributed to that, says Alberto Fierro, executive director at the Mexican Cultural Institute.

Each year the institute displays an altar honoring different Mexican people. This year's altar is dedicated to a number of cultural figures who helped shape and share Mexican culture. It's also dedicated to the victims of the deadly earthquakes that rocked Mexico in September, killing hundreds.

Historically, Day of the Dead festivities were popular in indigenous areas in Mexico, but in the 1980s, the celebration spread to more urban areas of the country, Fierro says. Ofrendas became visible in places such as public buildings and museums.

In 2008, UNESCO added the "indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead" to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. It was the first cultural practice from Mexico recognized.

The tradition has been largely associated with the Mexican working class, but the country's middle class has rediscovered it in recent years for two major reasons: The celebration's appearance in pop culture, and it's popularity in the U.S., says Andrew Chesnut, a professor of Religious Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.

"In the past they would have ignored it or derided it, now they find it cool and hip," he says.

Scenes of a Dí a de los Muertos parade appeared in the 2015 James Bond installment "Spectre." Apparently inspired by the film, Mexico City hosted its first Day of the Dead parade in 2016, which brought thousands of participants celebrating in the streets.

This year, Day of the Dead celebrations are taking place in major cities across the U.S., including San Antonio, Los Angeles, Chicago and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
"Culture is alive"
With more people observing the holiday, sharing the tradition's history and keeping its integrity at the heart of the celebration is a continuing mission for educators.

"You see it so popularized in mainstream pop culture, the commercialization and commoditization of it - there's some danger in that," says Melissa Carrillo, the new media and technology director at the Smithsonian Latino Center. The Latino Center offers a range of community events to educate the public about the history of Day of the Dead and the importance of the ofrendas. It also tracks how people choose to practice the celebration as a way to document its evolving contemporary tradition.

The Chicano Movement in the U.S., for example, shared the tradition as a show of pride, she says. Meanwhile, in Mexico today, some use Day of the Dead to make political statements, calling out the country's high murder rate, Chesnut says.

Where and how the tradition is celebrated has changed over time, but that's part of culture, Fierro says. The theme and spirit of Día de los Muertos has remained throughout those transitions.

"Culture is alive," Fierro says. "It moves. It changes."
Isabel Dobrin is an NPR Digital News intern.

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Día De Los Muertos Comes To Life Across The Mexican Diaspora

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Decorative sugar skulls line the front of the colorful, four-tiered altar. C empasúchiles in bloom are scattered between painted skeletons, unlit candles and plates of food resting on pink papel picado, an intricately designed tissue paper. Three banners hang above the display.

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What's El Día de los Muertos? It's Not Scary, and It's Not Halloween (NBC News)

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What's El Día de los Muertos? It's Not Scary, and It's Not Halloween (NBC News)

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What is El Día de los Muertos, or "Day of the Dead," as it's now known in the U.S.?

Despite the white faces and the skulls, it's not meant to be a spooky holiday and it's not Halloween. Also known as Día de Muertos, the celebration originated in central and southern Mexico. Those who celebrate it believe that at midnight on October 31, the souls of all deceased children come down from heaven and reunite with their families on November 1, and the souls of deceased adults come visit on November 2.

Families make colorful altars in their homes in honor of their deceased loved ones, and the altars are decorated with flowers, candles, their loved one's favorite food and pan de muerto (a slightly sweet bread specifically made for this time).

The festivities continue in the cemetery, where families bring picnics, play music and sometimes even spend the night as a way to celebrate the lives of those who are no longer on this earth.
Related: What Is Día de Muertos? 3 Things to Know
The inextinguishable tradition dates back 3,000 years, during the time of the Aztecs. It survived through the 16th century, when the Spanish arrived to central Mexico and thought the tradition to be sacrilegious. Instead of it being abolished, however, the celebration evolved to incorporate elements of Christianity, such as celebrating it on November 1 and 2 instead of on its original summer observance to coincide with All Saints' or All Souls' Day, a time to pray for departed souls.

In San Francisco, California, Martha Rodríguez-Salazar has been working with the San Francisco Symphony for the past 10 years in their annual Día de los Muertos community celebration, which includes music and altars commissioned from different artists.

"My parents never made an altar while I was growing up, but some of my friends did," said Rodríguez-Salazar, a conductor, flutist, mezzo-soprano and teacher who was born and raised in Mexico. "Every November 1st and 2nd, they put altars of family and friends. In the Bay Area, it's become sort of in fashion - its own thing - where people dress up. In Mexico, it's not that way."

"Here is where you paint your face," said Rodríguez-Salazar. "Now with globalization, it's mixing," she explained.

"The tradition [in Mexico] is you invite people to your house for pan de muerto and then you go to the cemetery. You eat food there, drink tequila or mezcal, and that's the celebration. You want to leave your door open because a stranger can bring a spirit of your loved one. You never know."

Dina Leor, owner of La Sirena Mexican folk art store in New York City, has been an avid celebrator of Día de Muertos since she was a little girl, and she's not even Mexican.

"My mom is from Argentina and my dad is American - and my heart is Mexican," Leor told NBC News. "I was around 11 when I first went to Mexico, and I fell in love with the country and culture; I feel so connected to it."
RELATED: Día de los Muertos Altars: Loving Tribute to Deceased Family, Friends
Leor opened her store in 1999, and for 18 years she's been bringing a bit of Mexico to NYC, from its colorful trinkets to its celebrations.

On October 21, she held a Dia de los Muertos pop-up market where she sold everything one needs to make an altar.

"I'd say 90 percent of the people who came were Mexican," said Leor. "A lot of people were coming to buy stuff for their altars. Copál - resin to burn on the altar, and mini papel picados (paper cut outs), and the flowers made out of paper were best sellers."

Leor was also asked to do another pop-up at the American Folk Art Museum in New York City, which celebrated Día de Muertos last Saturday.

"A lot of people were asking, 'Is this Halloween?'," Leor said about the visitors, mostly non-Latinos, who were passing by her stand.

"My tables looked like altars with papel picado, figurines, bark paper, and José Guadalupe Posada's prints. This was introducing them to Día de Muertos. The museum wanted to have a Day of the Dead feel, not Halloween, and the woman who ran the gift shop brought pan de muerto."

Leor said the celebration has always made sense to her.

"When I was 8, I made a space for my deceased grandmother and lit a candle for her, and left water for her, and I didn't even know about Día de Muertos," she said, but not everything was as natural. "Before I had my store, I was worried about having skeletons, and now I love them. I find them colorful and joyful."

Juan Castaño, co-founderof Calpulli Mexican Dance Company, moved to New York with his family when he was 22.

"I am a Mexican-American born in the border city in El Paso, Texas. My identity is both Mexican and American. Growing up, I knew about Día de Muertos, but it's not something my family really did, since it came more from southern Mexico," he said. "When we moved to New York, I met people from Puebla, and I started learning more."

When his father passed away, Castaño wanted to do something special, so he decided to make his first altar.

"It was really a beautiful experience...It's a very personal thing," he said. "I remember looking at the altar and putting coffee there, because my dad loved coffee. My mom said, 'No, he would never like it like that - and she took it away and made it piping hot with a little sugar, and the experience created a conversation between us," said Castaño. Dia de Muertos is very powerful, because you feel peace and a beautiful experience remembering someone and celebrating what they did and who they were."

His 14-year-old Calpulli Mexican Dance Company has always incorporated elements from Día de Muertos in performances that started on October 26th and will have a final performance on November 4 in New York's prestigious Town Hall.
Related: Voices: On Día de Muertos, No Elaborate Rituals, Just Honoring My Dad
"The theme and the message of the story if what Día de Muertos is about - the hope that we have to reconnect with the loved ones we have lost," he said. "The world of the dead, according to Aztec mythology is called Mictlan - a beautiful world where we all want to be."

Although they are separate celebrations, Castaño believes there has been a huge influence on Día de Muertos from the U.S. and Halloween, namely the face painting.

"I think anytime cultures come together, it's a way to bring communities together. In my opinion I don't think it's a negative thing," he said. "I have nephews that love Halloween, but I think it's really nice for them to know about Dia de Muertos, too - it's such a nice way to deal with death and celebrate death in a healthy, constructive way."

"For young people, the boogie man [and Halloween] can be traumatizing," said Castaño. "Maybe we can disarm the fear, stress and anxiety of what dying represents."
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El Día de los Muertos is not scary and it's not Halloween, it's about remembering your loved ones

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What is El Día de los Muertos, or "Day of the Dead," as it's now known in the U.S.? Despite the white faces and the skulls, it's not meant to be a spooky holiday and it's not Halloween. Also known as Día de Muertos, the celebration originated in central and southern Mexico.

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Desfile Día de Muertos 2017 CDMX (Parade in Mexico City)

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Desfile Día de Muertos 2017 CDMX (Parade in Mexico City)

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"Chúmbala Cachúmbala" (Canción para niños)

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Google Arts & Culture: Día de los Muertos (videos, galerías, arte)

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Google Arts & Culture: Día de los Muertos (videos, galerías, arte)

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Explore and celebrate one of Mexico's most ancient and popular traditions

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Google Arts & Cultures: Mexico's Day of the Dead

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Google Arts & Cultures: Mexico's Day of the Dead

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Dia de Muertos or Day of the Dead, is a two-day holiday celebrated throughout Mexico, where it began. Far from being a sad occasion, it is colorful, humorous and joyful. The holiday reaches back to Mexico's pre-Columbian history, and has spread internationally through modern pop culture.

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Mexico's Day of the Dead - Google Arts & Culture

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Dia de Muertos or Day of the Dead, is a two-day holiday celebrated throughout Mexico, where it began. Far from being a sad occasion, it is colorful, humorous and joyful. The holiday reaches back to Mexico's pre-Columbian history, and has spread internationally through modern pop culture.