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day of the dead is also nown as dia de los muertos

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Day of the Dead (Dia De Los Muertos) is a two day holiday that reunites the living and dead. Families create ofrendas (Offerings) to honor their departed family members that have passed. These altars are decorated with bright yellow marigold flowers, photos of the departed, and the favorite foods and drinks of the one being honored. The offerings are believed to encourage visits from the land of the dead as the departed souls hear their prayers, smell their foods and join in the celebrations!

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The day of the dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico, in particular the Central and South regions, and by people of Mexican heritage elsewhere.

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The Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico, in particular the Central and South regions, and by people of Mexican heritage elsewhere

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The Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico, in particular the Central and South regions, and by people of Mexican heritage elsewhere

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two day

Day of the Dead (Dia De Los Muertos) is a two day holiday that reunites the living and dead. Families create ofrendas (Offerings) to honor their departed family members that have passed.

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this is a Map that shows Mexico

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Day of the Dead survives, celebrates life

It may change and evolve, but it never vanishes. The Spaniards learned that when they arrived in central Mexico in the 16th century. They viewed the ritual, which was started by the Aztecs some 3,000 years ago, as sacrilegious

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the day of the dead demonstrates the love and respect for dead family members

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this is a photo of someone with face paint on and they do it to look like a skeleton

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this is a photo of someone with face paint on and they do it to look like a skeleton

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The day of the dead is celebrated. Monday, 2 November

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It is customary for women on Day of the Dead to wear long, floral Mexican dresses during the event. Meanwhile Mexican men often wear fine, smart clothing on Dia de los Muertos. Men will often wear black hats, meanwhile women will opt for floral headpieces.

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How Men and Woman dress on day of the dead

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Dia de los Muertos is celebrated on All Saints Day and All Souls Day, minor holidays in the Catholic calendar. Assured that the dead would be insulted by mourning or sadness, Dia de los Muertos celebrates the lives of the deceased with food, drink, parties, and activities the dead enjoyed in life.

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the day of the dead is celebrated on the 2nd of November has a lot of colour,and has butterflies as one of there symbols

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hear is a link of the facts of the day of the dead

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Día de los Muertos is celebrated across Mexico with skulls, skeletons, and graveside visits-but what does this beloved holiday really represent?

Hector Colin brings marigolds to decorate the graveyard in Carpinteros, Mexico, for Day of the Dead. Celebrated each year on November 1 and 2, the holiday uses a blend of pre-Columbian and Spanish traditions to honor deceased family members.

Photograph by Jaime Rojo, National Geographic

Here's one thing we know: Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is not a Mexican version of Halloween.

Though related, the two annual events differ greatly in traditions and tone. While Halloween embraces terror and mischief on the last night of October, Day of the Dead festivities unfold over the first two days of November in an explosion of color and life-affirming joy. Sure, the theme is death, but the point is to demonstrate love and respect for deceased family members. In towns and cities throughout Mexico, revelers don funky makeup and costumes, hold parades and parties, sing and dance, and make offerings to lost loved ones.

The rituals are rife with symbolic meaning. The more you understand about this feast for the senses, the more you will appreciate it. Here are 10 essential things you should know about Mexico's most vibrant annual event.

Day of the Dead originated several thousand years ago with the Aztec, Toltec, and other Nahua people, who considered mourning the dead disrespectful. For these pre-Hispanic cultures, death was a natural phase in life's long continuum. The dead were still members of the community, kept alive in memory and spirit-and during Día de los Muertos, they temporarily returned to Earth.

(Here are the best hotels to stay in to experience the Day of the Dead.)

Today's Día de los Muertos celebration is a mash-up of pre-Hispanic religious rites and Christian feasts. It takes place on November 1 and 2-All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day on the Catholic calendar-around the time of the fall corn harvest.

2. It has been recognized by UNESCO.

Cultural heritage is not just monuments and collections of objects. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says that cultural heritage also includes living expressions of culture-traditions-passed down from generation to generation.

In 2008, UNESCO recognized the importance of Día de los Muertos by adding the holiday to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Today Mexicans from all religious and ethnic backgrounds celebrate the holiday. But at its core, Day of the Dead is a reaffirmation of Indigenous life.

3. Altars are an important tradition...

The centerpiece of the celebration is an altar, or ofrenda, built in private homes and cemeteries. These aren't altars for worshipping; rather, they're meant to welcome spirits back to the realm of the living. As such, they're loaded with offerings-water to quench thirst after the long journey, food, family photos, and a candle for each dead relative. If one of the spirits is a child, you might find small toys on the altar.

Marigolds are the main flowers used to decorate the altar. Scattered from altar to gravesite, the golden petals guide wandering souls back to their place of rest. The smoke from copal incense, made from tree resin, transmits praise and prayers and purifies the area around the altar.

(Here's how marigolds became iconic symbols of the Day of the Dead.)

4. ...and so are literary calaveras...

Calavera means "skull." But during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, calavera was used to describe short, humorous poems, which were often sarcastic tombstone epitaphs published in newspapers that poked fun at the living. These literary calaveras eventually became a popular part of Día de los Muertos celebrations. Today the practice is alive and well. You'll find these clever, biting poems in print, read aloud, and broadcast on television and radio programs.

5. ...especially the calavera Catrina.

In the early 20th century, Mexican political cartoonist and lithographer José Guadalupe Posada created an etching to accompany a literary calavera. Posada dressed his personification of death in fancy French garb and called it Calavera Garbancera, intending it as social commentary on Mexican society's emulation of European sophistication. " Todos somos calaveras," a quote attributed to Posada, means "we are all skeletons." Underneath our human-made trappings, we are all the same.

In 1947 artist Diego Rivera featured Posada's stylized skeleton in his masterpiece mural "Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park." Posada's skeletal bust was dressed in a large feminine hat, and Rivera made his female and named her Catrina, slang for "the rich." Today, the calavera Catrina, or elegant skull, is the Day of the Dead's most ubiquitous symbol. (Learn more about the dark history of the holiday's immortal icon.)

6. Families bring food to the dead.

You work up a mighty hunger and thirst traveling from the spirit world back to the realm of the living. At least that's the traditional belief in Mexico. Some families place their dead loved one's favorite meal on the altar. Other common offerings:

Pan de muerto, or bread of the dead, is a typical sweet bread (pan dulce), often featuring anise seeds and decorated with bones and skulls made from dough. The bones might be arranged in a circle, as in the circle of life. Tiny dough teardrops symbolize sorrow.

(Read more about pan de muerto.)

Sugar skulls are part of a sugar art tradition brought by 17th-century Italian missionaries. Pressed in molds and decorated with crystalline colors, they come in all sizes and levels of complexity.

Drinks to celebrate the holiday include pulque, a sweet fermented beverage made from the agave sap; atole, a thin warm porridge made from corn flour, with unrefined cane sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla added; and hot chocolate.

7. People dress in costumes.

Day of the Dead is an extremely social holiday that spills into streets and public squares at all hours of the day and night. Dressing up as skeletons is part of the fun. People of all ages have their faces artfully painted to resemble skulls, and, mimicking the calavera Catrina, they don suits and fancy dresses. Many revelers wear shells or other noisemakers to amp up the excitement-and also possibly to rouse the dead and keep them close during the festivities.

8. Streets are decorated in papel picado.

You've probably seen this beautiful Mexican paper craft plenty of times in Mexican restaurants. The literal translation, pierced paper, perfectly describes how it's made. Artisans stack colored tissue paper in dozens of layers, then perforate the layers with hammer and chisel points. Papel picado isn't used exclusively during Day of the Dead, but it plays an important role in the holiday. Draped around altars and in the streets, the art represents the wind and the fragility of life.

(These Mexican paper crafts bring the party during Day of the Dead.)

9. Mexico City hosts an iconic parade.

Día de los Muertos is more popular than ever-in Mexico and, increasingly, abroad. For more than a dozen years, the New York-based nonprofit cultural organization Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders has staged the city's largest Day of the Dead celebration.

But the most authentic celebrations take place in Mexico. If you find yourself in Mexico City the weekend before Day of the Dead this year, make sure to stop by the grand parade where you can join in on live music, bike rides and other activities in celebration throughout the city.

10. Other communities celebrate in unique ways.

Countless communities in Mexico celebrate Day of the Dead, but styles and customs differ by area, depending on the region's predominant pre-Hispanic culture. Here are a few places that stand out for their colorful, moving celebrations:

Pátzcuaro: One of the most poignant Day of the Dead celebrations takes place each year in Pátzcuaro, a municipality in the state of Michoacán about 225 miles west of Mexico City. Indigenous people from the countryside converge on the shores of Pátzcuaro Lake, where they pile into canoes, a single candle burning in each bow, and paddle over to a tiny island called Janitzio for an all-night vigil in the cemetery.

Mixquic: In this Mexico City suburb, bells from the historic Augustinian convent toll and community members bearing candles and flowers proceed to the local cemetery, where they clean and decorate the graves of their loved ones.

Tuxtepec: This small city in the northeastern part of Oaxaca state is best known for its sawdust rugs. For days, locals painstakingly arrange colored sawdust, flower petals, rice, pine needles, and other organic materials in elaborate, ruglike patterns on city streets. Traditionally made for important processions, Tuxtepec's sawdust rugs are judged in a contest held during Día de los Muertos.

Aguascalientes: Located roughly 140 miles north of Guadalajara, Aguascalientes-birthplace of engraver José Guadalupe Posada-stretches its Day of the Dead celebrations to nearly a week during its Festival de Calaveras (Festival of Skulls). The event culminates in a grand parade of skulls along Avenida Madero.

Editor's note: This story was originally published on October 26, 2017. It has been updated.

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Top 10 things to know about the Day of the Dead

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Día de los Muertos is celebrated across Mexico with skulls, skeletons, and graveside visits-but what does this beloved holiday really represent?

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In the days preceding the holiday, it is customary to build a shrine to honor one’s deceased relatives. These shrines, referred to in Spanish as “Ofrendas,” are bright, colorful, and ornate. They are adorned in orange and purple, the holiday’s traditional colors, and decorated with flowers, including marigolds, and decorated paper crafts, including the traditional “papel picado.” Placed atop these altars are photographs of the deceased, objects that were precious to them, and foods they enjoyed in life. These sit alongside sugar skulls, candles, the traditional Pan de Muertos, crosses, and statues and icons of Jesus and Saints. Secular, and non-Catholic Mexicans will often avoid placing this religious iconography on their Ofrendas.

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In the days preceding the holiday, it is customary to build a shrine to honor one’s deceased relatives. These shrines, referred to in Spanish as “Ofrendas,” are bright, colorful, and ornate. They are adorned in orange and purple, the holiday’s traditional colors, and decorated with flowers, including marigolds, and decorated paper crafts, including the traditional “papel picado.” Placed atop these altars are photographs of the deceased, objects that were precious to them, and foods they enjoyed in life. These sit alongside sugar skulls, candles, the traditional Pan de Muertos, crosses, and statues and icons of Jesus and Saints. Secular, and non-Catholic Mexicans will often avoid placing this religious iconography on their Ofrendas.

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day of the death is celebrated for life and death

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The Aztec Empires influence extended throughout present day Mexico and Central America while few Native Americans of the presentday US shared Aztec traditions They would be unlikely to adopt Dia de los Muertos rituals

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Monday,2 November every year day of the dead is celebrated

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November 1 to 2 every year

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it is to demonstrate love and respect for deceased family members

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Mexico and religions with large Mexican population

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Monday 2nd november

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day of the dead decorations

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the point is to demonstrate love and respect for deceased family members.

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Monday 2nd November The holiday has a rich and ancient history, dating bake over 2000 

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Monday 2nd November The holiday has a rich and ancient history, dating bake over 2000 

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years. Existed depending on how people died.

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the roots of the day dead run deep in Mexican history and date back to the days before the Spanish conquest. pre pre-Columbian civiizatations had a variety of celebrations aimed at honouring the dead. however, many of the traditions we know today come from the religiouiis practices of the azects, who belived different afterlives existed depending on how people died.one of these is mictlan, the final destination for those who died of natural cuses,ruled byt the goddess mictecacihatl, often represented by a skull

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It is celebrated mainly in Mexican and also by Mexican people living around the world

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The Aztecs believed that in order to reach Mictlán, souls had to complete an arduous journey. To help the deceased along this journey, the Aztecs would make offerings of useful objects at their relatives’ burial sites. Several Aztec holidays involved rituals to honor the deceased, including decorating tree stumps and placing offerings for dead relatives. These traditions set the precedent for the Ofrendas, or Day of the Dead altars placed by Mexican families today.

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The Aztecs believed that in order to reach Mictlán, souls had to complete an arduous journey. To help the deceased along this journey, the Aztecs would make offerings of useful objects at their relatives’ burial sites. Several Aztec holidays involved rituals to honor the deceased, including decorating tree stumps and placing offerings for dead relatives. These traditions set the precedent for the Ofrendas, or Day of the Dead altars placed by Mexican families today.

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People of Mexican heritage celebrate dia de los muertos