When the Skeletons Come Alive
Each November, the Mexican city of San Miguel de Allende becomes a riot of walking skeletons for Día de Muertos.
Illustration by Zoe More O’Ferrall
“THE MEXICAN,” WROTE POET OCTAVIO PAZ, “is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it.” And there may be no better place to celebrate this spirit than in the colonial Mexican city of San Miguel de Allende. There, during the festival of Día de Muertos — a millennia-old Mexican holiday when it is believed the gates of the underworld open and the dearly departed come home — the city becomes a riot of walking skeletons, all-night parties, raucous parades, elaborate altars, and public art installations.
Traditionally, the holiday lasts two days — the first dedicated to children who have passed away, the second to adults. But in San Miguel de Allende, which has attracted artists and visitors since the 1950s, when American creatives came to study under the GI Bill, the festivities last for five days. And perhaps because of its large expat population, it’s an especially welcoming place for those new to the holiday.
“The city offers visitors the opportunity not just to witness the festival, but to also participate,” says Klaudia Oliver, the founder and organizer of the arts-and-culture–based La Calaca Festival, which spans five days and uses the holiday as a jumping-off point for costumed processions and altar-making workshops.
To get situated: The city’s central plaza, El Jardin, is presided over by La Parroquia, an ornate pink neo-Gothic church, and becomes the site of altars and the focal point of the parades. At the Plaza de la Soledad, you can stock up on altar supplies, including candles and sugar skulls. Marigold vendors line the street leading to the Panteón de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, the cemetery where picnickers honor the dead. And at the mask museum at Casa de la Cuesta, a B&B that overflows with altars, and the Parque Benito Juarez, where artists and local kids display their works (think: a VW turned into a skull), you’ll see the city’s artistic flair expressed to its fullest. With celebrations like these, it’s a wonder the dead ever return to the underworld.
Celebrations Around the World
While Mexico originated the holiday, communities all over break out the face paint and throw spectacular events, each with its own regional twist.
1. Los Angeles
Fans create altars to celebrities such as Jayne Mansfield and Johnny Ramone in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, and Santa Ana hosts Noche de Altares, the county’s largest Día de Muertos event, with 40,000 attendees and more than 100 altars.
2. Guatemala
Huge, colorful hand-painted kites called barriletes gigantes fly above the graves of family members as flowers are placed on the ground. Afterward, some kites are burned so the smoke can guide spirits back to heaven. The roots of this festival date back to pre-Columbian times.
3. Missoula, Montana
This 25-year-old multicultural celebration of death includes a full month of performances and workshops — on subjects including shrine-building and urn-making — and culminates in an epic processional to Caras Park, complete with marching bands and drummers.
4. Bolivia
A type of festive sweet bread known as t’antawawa in Quechua — a compound word that translates to “bread baby” — is ubiquitous during celebrations here. Many are decorated with beautifully painted ceramic faces baked directly into the loaves.
About the author: Laura Fraser is a San Francisco-based journalist and author of the NYT-bestselling memoir An Italian Affair. She lives part-time in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where she rents out the house she built via Airbnb.
