When most people hear “Día de los Muertos”, they think that it’s just the “Mexican Halloween”. Even though this traditional Mexican holiday also celebrates the dead, it is completely unrelated to the spooky holiday, Halloween, that everyone knows and loves. Día de los Muertos is actually a cultural holiday celebrated by families to honor the deceased. Despite being a holiday that celebrates the dead, Día de los Muertos is a festive and joyful celebration, complete with flowers, food, parades, and a lot of fun. These aspects of the holiday originated from the belief that the dead would be unhappy to be mourned over, so the people have fun and accept instead of grieving over the deceased. While both Día de los Muertos and Halloween are holidays dedicated to the dead and having fun, the purpose of Halloween has been more focused on costumes and trick-or-treating while Día de los Muertos retained its religious aspects and purpose of honoring the dead.

 Like most cultural holidays, Día de los Muertos has its own special foods, decorations, symbols, and traditions. The most common symbols for the celebration are skulls and skeletons, which are often portrayed to be having fun. Decorations for Día de los Muertos are festive and colorful, including candles, brightly-colored paper decorations, and orange marigolds. During this holiday, most families set up altars of offerings which are vibrantly decorated with flowers, candles, pictures of the deceased, food, and sometimes Christian crosses. Some common foods of Día de los Muertos are sugar skulls and pan de muerto, which translates to “bread of the dead”. During the Holiday, families spend time around altars to pray, tell stories, and keep the souls of the dead company. Oftentimes, people also participate in grand parades, dressed up as skulls or others to celebrate the holiday in a festive and lively way.

 Día de los Muertos is often misunderstood, but it is actually culture-rich and a meaningful holiday meant to honor loved ones who have passed away. The most important aspect of this holiday is to spend time with the deceased as though they are present and to celebrate happily instead of mourning over the dead.