Photo by Ines Suarez R., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Oct 28 – Nov 2, 2026
Día de Muertos is officially November 1 and 2, but in much of Mexico the dead start arriving a week earlier, and in some regions they leave only at the end of the month. Here is who is expected when.
The two days everyone agrees on come from the Catholic calendar: November 1 is All Saints, Todos los Santos, and in Mexico it belongs to the children who have died; November 2 is All Souls, the Fieles Difuntos, and it belongs to the adults. In 2026 they fall on a Sunday and a Monday. Around them sits an older idea that UNESCO describes in its listing of the festival: the dead are grouped by how they died, by age, by sex and sometimes by trade, and each group has its own day.
That is why many families set out a glass of water or a candle in the last week of October for particular souls, and why the dates below are not the same in every town. Use this page as a map, not a rulebook. The days before October 31 are popular customs that vary from region to region (and one of them, the pets' day, is very recent); the days after November 2 belong to specific indigenous traditions in the Huasteca, the Totonacapan and Yucatán.
Long before the Spanish arrived, the Mexica, Purépecha, Totonac and Maya honored their dead at the end of the harvest, in the last weeks of October and the first days of November. Death was the start of a journey to Mictlán, the place of the dead, where the soul crossed a series of obstacles before reaching Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacíhuatl, its lord and lady. The friars who evangelized Mexico laid the Catholic feasts of All Saints and All Souls over those rites, and the result is the festival as it is kept today: a pre-Hispanic welcome for the dead on a Catholic calendar, timed to the end of the maize cycle.
UNESCO proclaimed the Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity on November 7, 2003, and inscribed it on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008.
Every family builds its own, but most ofrendas share the same vocabulary. The photograph says who is being invited. Cempasúchil, the orange marigold, perfumes the room and its petals are laid as a path to lead the soul to the altar; its color was linked to the sun. Candles light the way home. Copal or incense cleanses the house of bad spirits so the soul can enter safely. A glass of water quenches the thirst of a soul that has traveled a long way, and salt purifies, so the body does not decay on its journey there and back.
Pan de muerto stands for affection and fellowship with the dead; papel picado represents the air, one of the four elements an ofrenda should hold. Sugar, chocolate or amaranth skulls stand for death itself, and the dead person's favorite dish, drink or cigarette is there so the visit is a pleasure. Regions add their own: arches of palm in the Huasteca, a hanging altar in the Totonacapan, the mucbipollo tamal in Yucatán, where there is no pan de muerto at all.
Xantolo is the Huasteca's name, from the Nahuatl xantolon, itself from the Latin sanctorum, the saints: a season that runs from San Miguel on September 29 to the end of November, with comparsas of masked huehues. Hanal Pixán, "food of the souls" in Yucatec Maya, is the Yucatán version, with its own days for children, adults and all souls and the biix a week later. Ninín is the Totonac festival of Papantla and the Totonacapan, from San Lucas on October 18 to San Andrés on November 30. Todos Santos is what much of rural Mexico, Oaxaca's sierras included, simply calls the whole thing. And the Muerteada is a particular comparsa of the Etla valley near Oaxaca city, a masked street theater around a widow mourning her husband that runs from the afternoon of November 1 to midday on November 2.
Not officially. Article 74 of the Ley Federal del Trabajo lists the mandatory rest days, and neither November 1 nor November 2 is among them; November's official day off in 2026 is Monday, November 16, for the Revolution. In September 2026 a committee of the Chihuahua state congress endorsed an initiative to add November 2, which would still have to pass the federal Congress; it has not become law.
In practice two big institutions do stop. The CNBV's 2026 calendar closes banks on Monday, November 2, which with the weekend makes a three-day bank closure from Saturday, October 31 (ATMs and apps keep working). The SEP's 2026-2027 school calendar, published in the Diario Oficial, suspends classes on November 2 as well, and Friday, October 30, is a Consejo Técnico session at many schools. Private employers are free to open; many offices and shops do.
The Gran Desfile de Día de Muertos is a recent invention, but it has become one of the season's biggest events: a parade of floats, giant catrinas and dancers along Paseo de la Reforma to the Zócalo. In 2026 the city's official tourism guide lists it for Saturday, October 31, at 2 pm. The rest of the city program for 2026: the 18th Desfile de Alebrijes Monumentales on October 17, from the Zócalo to Reforma; the Festival Flores de Cempasúchil along Reforma between the Ángel and the Ahuehuete from October 18 to November 1; the Mega Procesión de las Catrinas on October 25; and the Ofrenda Monumental in the Zócalo from October 29 to November 2, built around a 32-meter Catrina in honor of José Guadalupe Posada. In Tláhuac, Mixquic keeps one of the capital's few village-style celebrations, from October 31 to the Alumbrada on the night of November 2.
On the feast of San Miguel Arcángel the Huasteca Potosina opens its Xantolo season with the Bajada de Máscaras, asking permission for the dead to come and visit; the first offerings go up.
Among the Totonacs of Papantla and northern Veracruz, the Ninín season opens on the feast of San Lucas, when the souls of those who died violently are received.
Many families now set a small ofrenda for dogs, cats and other pets on October 27. It is not part of the traditional calendar: pet-welfare groups and a pet funeral company proposed a date around 2019 and 2020, and October 27 is the one that caught on.
In many parts of Mexico October 28 is for those who died in accidents or tragically, the ones who never reached their destination. A candle and a glass of water are usually set apart for them, sometimes outside the house.
Popular calendars widely shared in the press give October 29 to those who drowned, with water on the altar. It is a regional custom, not a universal one.
In some places the souls of children who died before baptism are expected on October 30; other families light a candle for the ánimas solas, the dead who have no one left to remember them. Sources disagree on the exact day.
In many regions the children's souls arrive on October 31: at midday in the Totonac Ninín, and as the children's day of Hanal Pixán in Yucatán. In Mixquic the night is El Susurro de los Angelitos. In 2026 Mexico City's Gran Desfile de Día de Muertos is on this Saturday at 2 pm, along Paseo de la Reforma to the Zócalo. It is also Halloween, so expect costumes and children asking for their calaverita.
All Saints' Day is the day of the children, the angelitos. At midday the children's souls hand over to the adults in many traditions; church bells ring at noon in Mixquic to announce them. That night the great vigils begin: around Lake Pátzcuaro families keep watch in the cemeteries until morning, and in the Etla valley of Oaxaca the Muerteada comparsas go out until midday on the 2nd.
All Souls' Day belongs to the adults and is the main cemetery day in most of Mexico: families decorate the graves with cempasúchil, eat beside them and bring music. In Mixquic it ends with the Alumbrada, when thousands of candles are lit on the graves after dark and the souls are walked back to the cemetery.
Eight days later some regions say goodbye again. In Yucatán the biix or ochovario repeats the offerings for the souls; among the Nahuas of Acatitla, in Chicontepec in the Veracruz Huasteca, the farewell gathering at the cemetery is repeated on November 8, 15 and 30.
On Saint Andrew's day the Totonacs see off all the souls and go back to work in the milpa, and in parts of the Huasteca the arches come down and Xantolo ends.
Photo by Isaacvp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Lake Pátzcuaro, Michoacán
The classic night of November 1. The angelitos are honored first; then families carry flowers, candles and food to the lakeside cemeteries and to the island of Janitzio and keep vigil until dawn. The town's Festival Cultural de la Muerte fills the days before with crafts and altars in the plazas.
Full guide to Pátzcuaro → · Sources: Pátzcuaro (Wikipedia)
Photo by Patricia Alzuarte Díaz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Huasteca Potosina
The longest calendar of all: Xantolo opens on September 29 and the huehues' masked dances peak at the turn of the month, with altars of palm and cempasúchil in every house.
Full guide to Aquismón → · Sources: Xantolo (Wikipedia, in Spanish)
Photo by Sergio Mena Ferreira on Unsplash
Oaxaca's central valleys
The town named after Mictlán bakes Oaxaca's most elaborate pan de muerto, iced with flowers and the grecas of its ruins, and its families visit the cemetery on November 1. Oaxaca city's comparsas and the Muerteada of Etla are a short drive away.
Full guide to Mitla → · Sources: Mitla (Wikipedia)
Photo by Christy Araica on Unsplash
Yucatán
Hanal Pixán keeps its own order: children on October 31, adults on November 1, all souls on November 2, and the biix a week later. Altars carry a green cross, embroidered cloths and the mucbipollo baked underground.
Full guide to Valladolid → · Sources: Hanal Pixán (Wikipedia, in Spanish)
The main days are November 1 and 2, 2026, a Sunday and a Monday. November 1 is for children who have died and November 2 for adults. Many families start welcoming particular souls from October 28, and in the Huasteca, the Totonacapan and Yucatán the season runs longer.
There is no single rule. Most families have the altar ready by October 31 so the children find it when they arrive, and add food for the adults on November 1. If you keep the popular calendar, a candle and water go out on October 28 for those who died in accidents, and on October 30 for unbaptized children or forgotten souls.
It is a popular custom now, but a new one. Pet-welfare groups and a pet funeral company proposed a remembrance day around 2019 and 2020, and October 27 caught on through social media. It is not part of the traditional calendar, which is about people.
Not under the federal labor law, so employers can open. But in 2026 banks close on Monday, November 2, under the CNBV calendar, and the SEP's 2026-2027 calendar suspends classes that day, so schools and banks get a long weekend from Saturday, October 31.
On Saturday, October 31, 2026, at 2 pm, along Paseo de la Reforma to the Zócalo, according to the city's official tourism guide. It is free; arrive early for a spot on Reforma.
No. They meet on October 31, when children in Mexico dress up and ask for their calaverita, but Día de Muertos is about welcoming the dead home for a visit, with roots in pre-Hispanic harvest rites and the Catholic feasts of November 1 and 2.
In most of Mexico, on November 2, when families walk them back to the cemetery; in Mixquic that is the Alumbrada. In Yucatán there is a second farewell a week later, the biix, and among the Totonacs and in parts of the Huasteca the last souls leave on November 30, Saint Andrew's day.
Facts checked against these pages in October 2026. Programs change each year, so confirm dates with the town before you travel.
Día de Muertos 2026 in Mexico's Pueblos Mágicos Pátzcuaro & Janitzio Huaquechula & Atlixco Oaxaca & Mitla Mixquic (Mexico City) Chignahuapan Xantolo, Huasteca Potosina Hanal Pixán, Yucatán Naolinco & La Cantada Ninín in Papantla Tacámbaro Near Mexico City Near Guadalajara Near Monterrey
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