By Harry Nara · Last updated
- Día de los Angelitos, for children who have diedMonday 1 November 2027
- Día de Muertos, for adultsTuesday 2 November 2027
- Where
- Citywide, with vigils at San Andrés Mixquic and Xochimilco
- Tickets
- Free
- Time of year
- November
- Dates
- Around the same dates every year
The observance falls on 1 and 2 November every year and does not move. The city parade, the Gran Desfile de Día de Muertos, is a separate modern event created in 2016; the Mexico City government announces its date in the autumn, usually for a Saturday in the preceding week, so it is not fixed and it does not fall on the 2nd. Confirm the parade date before planning around it.
The observance is fixed and the parade is not. Families visit graves on two consecutive days in early November, cleaning them, covering them in marigolds and sitting with them, often all night. The city parade is a modern addition whose date is announced only in the autumn. If you have come for the real thing, plan around the vigils rather than around the floats.
What Día de Muertos actually is
A domestic observance rather than a public festival. Households build an ofrenda, a tiered altar for specific named dead, and load it with marigolds, candles, water, salt, pan de muerto and the food and drink those people liked. The scent of cempasúchil is understood to guide them home.
The two days divide by who is being remembered. The first is for children who have died, the second for adults, and families who have lost both mark them separately.
The parade is a recent invention. There was no parade in Mexico City until a James Bond film opened with a fictional one and the city staged a real version the following year. It is enormous, it is popular, and it is not what the days are about.
Where to watch Día de Muertos
- San Andrés Mixquic, in the far south-east. The best-known vigil in the city. The cemetery fills with candles after dark and families stay through the night. It is a long way out, and the journey back is the difficult part of the evening.
- Xochimilco cemetery. Closer in, doing the same thing on the same nights, and easier to leave when you have had enough.
- The Zócalo. The largest public ofrenda in the city, free and floodlit and crowded. Museum and university courtyards across the centre build their own and those are calmer.
- Reforma, if you have come for the parade. It gives the longest view of the route. The Zócalo end is where it finishes and where the crush is worst.
- Mercado de Jamaica, in the days beforehand. The city’s flower market turns over almost entirely to cempasúchil for the week, with trucks arriving from Puebla and the stalls stacked to the roof. Nothing there is ticketed, it is where the ofrendas physically come from, and it is the part of the observance almost no visitor sees.
Tickets and what it costs
Nothing about the observance is ticketed. The cemeteries are open, the ofrendas are free to see and the parade is a street event.
Where money changes hands is transport. Organised trips to Mixquic exist mainly to solve the problem of getting home in the small hours, which is a real problem and the main argument for booking one.
A few museums charge normal admission for ofrenda exhibitions during the season, and some cemeteries ask a small voluntary contribution at the gate on the night.
Official information and booking: www.mexicocity.gob.mx
Getting there
The Zócalo and the centre are Metro journeys rather than car journeys. Roads close for days around the observance and the parade route shuts Reforma for a full day.
Mixquic has no Metro. It is a long ride to the south-eastern edge of the city and then a local connection, and on the night itself the last stretch is on foot through a village that has filled with visitors.
Arrange the return before you go. This is the advice most often ignored and most often regretted: thousands of people try to leave Mixquic at the same hour, and ride-hailing there is unreliable at that point in the night.
Mistakes worth avoiding
Treating it as Mexican Halloween
The two have separate origins and separate meanings, and the figures visitors recognise are mostly Catrinas, which are satire about death rather than horror. Families at a graveside are not in costume and are not performing.
Assuming the parade is the tradition
It was created after a film invented one. It is worth seeing and it is not the observance. Plan them as two separate things on two separate days.
Photographing a family at a grave without asking
The vigils are private acts taking place in public. Public ofrendas and the parade are fair game. A family sitting with their dead is not, unless you ask and they agree.
Going to Mixquic without a way home
It is far out, it fills up, and the transport thins at exactly the hour everyone wants to leave. Book a tour for the transport or arrange a driver in advance.
Booking accommodation late
This is the most expensive and most crowded week of the Mexico City year alongside Christmas. Centro, Roma and Condesa fill months ahead.
Expecting the same thing everywhere
The observance varies sharply by neighbourhood and by state. What happens in Mixquic is not what happens in Coyoacán, and neither is what happens in Oaxaca, which is a different trip entirely.
Other Mexico City events
Frequently asked questions
Is Día de Muertos the same as Halloween?
No. They fall close together and both involve the dead, but the origins and the meaning are separate. This is a family observance in which households build altars for named relatives and visit their graves, and it is affectionate rather than frightening. The skeleton imagery visitors recognise is largely Catrina figures, which began as political satire about death making equals of everyone.
When is the Día de Muertos parade in Mexico City?
The city government announces it in the autumn, usually for a Saturday in the week before the observance, so it is not a fixed date and it does not fall on the second day. It was created in 2016 after a James Bond film opened with a fictional version. Confirm the date before booking a trip around it.
Where is the best place to experience Día de Muertos in Mexico City?
For the vigils, San Andrés Mixquic in the far south-east is the best known and Xochimilco is the more manageable. For the altars, the Zócalo holds the largest public one and the museum and university courtyards build quieter ones. For the parade, Reforma gives the longest view of the route.
Can visitors take part in Día de Muertos?
Yes, and joining in is welcomed. Wearing face paint is widespread and nobody will object. What is expected is that you treat a cemetery as somebody else’s home: photograph the parade and the public altars freely, ask before photographing a family at a grave, and accept no as an answer.
What is an ofrenda?
A tiered altar built at home, and occasionally in a public square, for specific named dead rather than for the dead in general. It carries their photograph, the food and drink they liked, water and salt, candles, pan de muerto, papel picado and a great deal of cempasúchil, whose scent is understood to guide them back. The tiers vary by region and by family, and the whole thing is dismantled afterwards.
How far ahead should I book for Día de Muertos?
Months rather than weeks. It is the most expensive and most crowded stretch of the Mexico City year alongside Christmas, and hotels in the Centro, Roma and Condesa fill early. Prices fall away sharply once the observance ends, and the rest of that month is one of the best and quietest stretches of the year.
Sources
- Gobierno de la Ciudad de México
- UNESCO, Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead
- Secretaría de Cultura de la Ciudad de México
Dates on this page are checked against the organiser’s own listing and confirmed through 2028. Written and maintained by Harry Nara.