How Halloween Overtook Day of the Dead in Mexico

The Day of the Dead is Mexico's most iconic holiday. It’s celebrated on November 1st and 2nd, and it honors the dead by lighting candles, setting up altars with flowers, and visiting cemeteries. To commemorate this tradition, many families build an altar where they place photos of deceased relatives along with other items that represent them—flowers, tequila, and food are usually involved, meant as offerings that guide spirits back home.

However, according to Google Trends, the popularity of Halloween in Mexico has overtaken the traditional celebration since 2011. Halloween has become increasingly popular among Mexicans because of the growing influence of American culture in the country, especially in the northern states.

Still, Hollywood has been paying closer attention to the Mexican holiday, which has also helped boost the tradition in its home country. In 2015, the James Bond movie Spectre opened with an action scene during a Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City (a fictitious event that wasn’t actually taking place in the city at the time). The scene worked so well and brought so much international interest in the celebration that the city started actually hosting and promoting it every year since. Coco, which became one of Pixar's most successful films, has also done admirable work showcasing the Day of the Dead internationally.

Even with Hollywood’s help, the popularity of Halloween is likely to remain. Catrinas were originally created by a satirist to mock the Mexican upper class, but are today an emblem of the Day of the Dead holiday. Now, as Halloween becomes intertwined with Mexico’s tradition, many in the country and beyond make the Catrina their costume of choice on October 31st.

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