Día de Muertos 2026 in Naolinco: La Cantada

The night starts at the panteón. Around 8 pm on November 1 singers gather at the cemetery to ask the souls' permission, sing first at the central chapel and then at the family tombs, and from there spread out through the cobbled streets. Each group stops at the houses whose doors are open, sings in front of the altar, and moves on. The hymns are alabados, once sung by field hands at sunset in colonial times, and alabanzas, which come from the processional chants the Franciscan friars brought from Xalapa in the 16th century; families keep the words and tunes they inherited. Hosts thank the singers with a little glass of fruit wine (grape, pineapple, tamarind or blackberry) and something to eat, and the rounds wind down in the early hours so people can rest before the cemetery visit on November 2.

In 2026 La Cantada falls on a Sunday night. The town hall announced that the official activities start that afternoon under the arcade of the municipal palace (los bajos del Palacio Municipal), that the center will be closed to cars for the day, and that its program includes a contest of alabados and alabanzas. The municipal cemetery has been cleaned and repainted for the occasion. Anyone can follow a singing group, and the town expects it: most visitors come up from Xalapa, but thousands arrive from all over Mexico and abroad.

Naolinco's altars are built to be seen from the street. Families start about two weeks ahead, cutting tissue paper and making flowers, and on October 30 and 31 the altars go up near the front door: an arch of cane or otate dressed with tepejilote palm and cempasúchil, or a rectangular frame hung with fruit and paper baskets, then candles, sugar skulls, fruit, pumpkin-seed sweets, candied sweet potato, the dead person's own things, and a path of marigold petals from the threshold to the offering. Walking the center on the evening of October 31 or during the day on November 1 you will see dozens of them through open doorways.

The other half of the show is the calaveras. Papier-mâché catrinas stand at the entrances of restaurants and cultural spaces, often in little scenes, a skeleton band serenading or a couple at a café table, and skulls hang from balconies and windows. For 2026 the town hall has announced a showcase of altars and an expo-sale of papel picado and catrinas from October 26 to November 2, an exhibition of catrinas and altars at the Casa de la Cultura, and school-made catrinas and altars at the Salón Hidalgo. In past years the town's exhibitions have staged darkened tableaux, from a pre-Hispanic Mictlán to souls rising from purgatory.

Much of the cempasúchil on Naolinco's altars grows a few kilometers away in San Pablo Coapan, a community of the municipality where families plant the fields from May to sell the flower in late October. The village opens them to visitors with a Festival del Cempasúchil, and the 2026 edition, the fifth, runs from October 17 to November 2 and coincides with the 500th anniversary of the village's founding. The opening weekend brought folk ballet, a harp ensemble, a trail race and night walks to the church of Santa María Magdalena; a market beside the church sells coffee, cempasúchil and Day of the Dead decorations from 9 am to 9 pm, with a photo exhibition and a catrina display in the church atrium. More weekend events are being announced as the festival goes on. To get there, take the Xalapa road out of Naolinco and turn off toward San Pablo before Coacoatzintla; the village is 3.5 km in. The fields stay open throughout the festival.

Naolinco calls itself the land of shoemakers, and a Day of the Dead trip is the time to buy. A shoe and leather corridor starts in the center, with workshops and shops selling boots, shoes, jackets and accessories; on the streets Dr. Lucio and Nicolás Bravo some workshops still make shoes by hand, and the Monumento al Zapatero honors the trade. For 2026 the town hall has announced a traditional market of altar goods running from October 26 to November 2 alongside the altar showcase and the catrina and papel picado expo-sale.

For food, look for the town's egg bread baked in wood-fired ovens, filled with cheese, sugar or cinnamon, its slightly sweet mole, enmoladas with longaniza, chiles stuffed with chicken picadillo, and the milk sweets sold near the park. On November 2 the families walk to the municipal cemetery with wreaths, flowers, candles and lanterns; near the entrance are older tombs and small 19th-century mausoleums with carved angels, and the newer sections have tombs built like small rooms, with lace-covered tables and photographs.

Two more Pueblos Mágicos sit just south of Xalapa, so a long weekend can take in all three. Coatepec, the coffee town, has in recent years held a Festival de Catrinas: the fourth edition ran from October 25 to November 2, 2025, with roughly 14-meter monumental catrinas in the Parque Miguel Hidalgo, an altar contest, Xantolo dancing, legend nights, a catrina parade and, on the closing day, a catrina costume contest. A monumental altar in the park is dressed with cempasúchil, oranges, cacao, plantains and corn, and on November 2 the cemetery fills with wreaths and long candles that burn until dawn.

Xico, a little further on, keeps a quieter version: its cemetery fills with candles and cempasúchil, altars of every size line the streets, and in 2024 a Day of the Dead parade left the Plazoleta de los Portales at 7 pm on October 31 for the Parque Independencia on Avenida Hidalgo. In 2025 the town added a first Festival Gastronómico y Artesanal from October 31 to November 2. Eat the dark, sweet mole xiqueño, wood-oven bread and canarios, sweet rice-flour tamales filled with custard. Buses to Xico leave Xalapa from the Los Sauces terminal every few minutes.

Go in only where a door is open; the open door is the invitation, and a closed one means the family wants privacy. Stand back from the altar, do not touch the offerings, and if the hosts offer you wine or food, accept with thanks: it is part of the ritual. Ask before photographing people, keep flash off at night, and stay quiet while a group is singing. In the cemetery, do not step on or lean against the tombs. Nights at this altitude are cool and damp, often with drizzle and fog, so bring a jacket and shoes with grip for the wet cobblestones. And spend your money in town: buy bread, sweets and shoes from the people who are opening their homes to you.