For the second year in the row, we left Europe in Late October and were in Mexico just in time to see Dia De Muertos (the day of the dead). Last year, I was traveling by myself for a few days and experienced the Mexican “Halloween” holiday in Mexico City. I saw the huge parade and the big displays in Mexico City’s Plaza de Independicia. This year we wanted to see the celebration in it’s most famous location so we booked 5 nights in Oaxaca. The animated movie “Coco” was set in Oaxaca, and this town is supposed to be the biggest Dia De Muertos party in Mexico. It did not disappoint. Oaxaca is a beautiful town and it is at its best during Dia De Muertos. We spent a week in this town in May of 2024 but our experience was dampened by a teacher’s strike that closed most of downtown. This week was a great redo on seeing Oaxaca, but also a redo on Dia de Muertos that Meg didn’t get to see last year.
Naturally, I want to compare the celebrations in the 2 cities. It probably isn’t a good comparison because I was alone in Mexico City and didn’t really jump to fully experience the party. I saw the big parade and enjoyed seeing the decorations all over the city, but Mexico City is huge, and every neighborhood has their own celebration. I really only saw the big stuff downtown. But, if I have to compare the celebrations, I really prefer Oaxaca. This is Oaxaca’s thing. They go all out for Dia De Muertos. The entire town was decked out in orange Marigolds with skeletons everywhere. We saw parades, bands, fireworks and masses of tourists and locals dressed up for the holiday everywhere. It is a whole week celebration. It was fantastic to immerse ourselves in Mexico traditions.
In order to fully experience Dia De Muertos, you really need to “look” the part. Last year, I regret that I didn’t have the courage to get my face painted by myself. We were going to not miss out this year so Meg bought a marigold head band and we found a makeup artist right across from the huge church in the center of Oaxaca. While we were getting our faces painted, we were surprised by a small parade that was making its way to the church square in front of us. It was a little surreal getting painted up watching the bands playing Mexican music and costumed people dancing by with large twirly balls spewing fireworks.
Dia De Muertos is mostly a celebration of the dead. It is a happy time… not a sad time. We heard a lot of shouts of “Viva Los Muertos!!!” which is really saying “Long Live the Dead”. It doesn’t make much sense until you remember the belief that the dead will live on as long as the people still living will remember them. The skeleton face painting turns you into a “Catrina”. In addition to honoring the dead, the La Catrina tradition also demonstrates that it doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, everyone will die. Rich people will be the same as the poor in the afterlife. After we were turned into Catrina’s, we had a fun evening wandering around town seeing all the music and celebrations. We ended up in a Hawaiian restaurant where we watched game 7 of the World Series. Another surreal experience of eating Hawaiian food, in Mexico, watching baseball, while made up as skeletons.
Oaxaca has other attractions but this was our second stay here so we didn’t do any of the day trips we did last time. This week was all about Dia De Muertos. One exception is that we did see the history/archeology museum in the old convent that we enjoyed last year. We also ate a lot of good food. Mole is one of my favorite foods and it is all over Oaxaca. We will keep coming back to Oaxaca just for the fantastic restaurants and street market food.
Next stop is the beach. We left Europe because it was gets cold in October and I still don’t like wearing pants. It is not going to be cold on the Mexican beaches during November. We are going to spend 3 weeks in Puerto Escondido and I intend to wear shorts the entire time. We are really happy to be back in Mexico and it isn’t just for the warm weather. We love Mexico. Hasta Luego!