Día de Muertos: The Days in Order, Where It Comes From, and How It Is Celebrated

Altar de muertos with candles and cempasúchil flowers beside the words Día de Muertos

Written by Guadalupe Pérez

Guadalupe Pérez (Lupita) is from Mexico and runs publishing at Speak Better Spanish. She writes up the everyday Mexican Spanish that comes out of her conversations with Hannah Pinkerton, our lead fluency coach.

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October 29, 2025

Día de Muertos is Mexico’s holiday for honoring and remembering loved ones who have died. The best-known date is November 2, but the observance starts days earlier. From October 27 to November 2, each day is set aside for a different group of the dead.

Hannah Pinkerton, lead Spanish fluency coach

This lesson comes from Speak Better Spanish, live one-to-one Spanish coaching for adults with Hannah, Arturo and Jacky. Rated 5.0 on Google. Get a free speaking plan →

Most of what follows comes from Arturo, who coaches with us at Speak Better Spanish and lives in Monterrey.

Hannah with Día de Muertos calavera face paint

Key Takeaways

The main day is November 2, when adults who have died are remembered. November 1 is for children.
The full sequence starts on October 27, with pets, and runs for a week.
Its roots are pre-Hispanic. What exists today is sincretismo: those beliefs blended with the Catholic All Saints’ Day.
Recognition by the UN and the film Coco made it famous recently. The tradition itself is much older.
It is a celebration, not a day of mourning.

The days of Día de Muertos, in order

Most English-language explanations stop at November 1 and 2. The full sequence is longer. This is how Arturo describes it, and he confirmed it is the same in Monterrey and the north of Mexico:

Date	Who is remembered
October 27	Pets
October 28	People who died in tragic circumstances
October 29	People who drowned
October 30	Forgotten souls (las ánimas olvidadas)
October 31	Children who died before being baptized
November 1	Children who died
November 2 (Día de los Fieles Difuntos)	Adults

October 27 is the day for pets. Arturo sees this one as relatively recent, part of a culture where an animal is a member of the family rather than just an animal in the house. We explain it in Día de Muertos for Pets: October 27.

Arturo says November 1 tends to feel a little sadder, because it is the day for children, even though the day itself is not meant to be sad. On November 2 the remembrance widens to the dead in general.

Customs change from one part of Mexico to another. If you are spending these days somewhere specific, ask the people around you how they do it there.

Home altar de muertos with photographs, small skulls and orange flowers

Where does Día de Muertos come from?

The origins are pre-Hispanic. Honoring the dead was a practice of the peoples already living in what is now Mexico: the Mexica, the Maya, the Purépecha, the Zapotec and others. It existed long before Europeans arrived.

When the Spanish came, the two traditions began to mix. That mixing has a name: sincretismo, when one culture and religion blend with another. The indigenous tradition of honoring the dead merged with the Catholic Día de Todos los Santos, All Saints’ Day.

Over time the holiday got a fixed date and specific traditions, and what people did year after year became custom. So it is neither purely indigenous nor purely Catholic. It is the blend of the two.

Why has it become so famous lately?

Arturo named two reasons.

Recognition by the UN. Día de Muertos was declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Arturo could not remember the exact year, only that it was recent: not a hundred years ago, but within the last couple of decades.

The film Coco. Disney’s movie made the holiday visible around the world, to children as well as adults.

His point is that the tradition is not new. Its visibility is.

Is Día de Muertos a sad holiday?

No, quite the opposite, though Arturo was careful about how he put it. Death is connected with sadness and with missing people, and that is true in Mexico too. When someone dies, there is mourning, as in almost every country.

But Día de Muertos itself is a celebration. Families get together and remember someone who died one, two, five or fifty years ago. Cities dress up in color. In Arturo’s words, it is not about sadness or pain. It is the opposite.

The altar de muertos

The center of the celebration is the altar de muertos, also called the ofrenda. Arturo says it has a whole history behind it, including a specific number of levels the altar should have, and he admits he does not know all of it.

What he is sure of is that every item on it has a meaning, and that the meaning is festive: the altar is about remembering people, not grieving them. These are some of the things you will see on one:

English	Spanish
Candles	las velas
Flowers	las flores
Skulls	las calaveras
Bread	el pan
Water	el agua

What each one is for, item by item, is in What Goes on an Ofrenda (and Why Each Thing Is There).

The orange flower you see everywhere has its own post: Cempasúchil: Why This Flower and Why the Trail of Petals.

Home ofrenda with skull figures and orange cempasúchil flowers

Large altar de muertos with candles and colorful decorations

How Mexico celebrates

Cities fill with color, and some celebrate more than others. There are even contests for the best-decorated city, and people make carpets of flowers, tapetes de flores, full of meaning.

Street decorated with flower carpets and a cross made of flowers

In Monterrey and the north

If you visit Monterrey during these days, Arturo says you will find altars in every church, large altars in public places, and paid events in a big park with museums, music and a Día de Muertos show. Stores and supermarkets fill with themed products, the way they do for Christmas or Valentine’s Day, maybe on a smaller scale.

Where to experience it most

Arturo is honest that the north is not the best place to live Día de Muertos. The celebration is stronger in the center and south of the country: Mexico City, and towns like Pátzcuaro, where it lasts a whole week rather than one day and schools cancel classes.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is Día de Muertos?

The main day is November 2, but the full observance runs from October 27 to November 2, with a different group remembered each day. November 1 is for children who died, and November 2 is for adults.

Is there a Día de Muertos for pets?

Yes. October 27 is the day for pets, the first day of the sequence. Arturo, who coaches with us and lives in Monterrey, sees it as a relatively recent addition.

What does “sincretismo” mean?

It is the blending of one culture and religion with another. Día de Muertos is an example: pre-Hispanic beliefs about honoring the dead blended with the Catholic All Saints’ Day.

Is Día de Muertos a sad holiday?

No. Mexicans mourn their dead as people do in almost every country, but Día de Muertos is a celebration. Families gather to remember the people they have lost.

Did the movie Coco invent Día de Muertos?

No. Coco, and the holiday’s recognition by the UN, made it famous around the world. The tradition itself goes back to before Europeans arrived in the Americas.

Practice Spanish with a Native Mexican Coach

Knowing what a tradition means changes what you can talk about. If you want to practice conversations like this one with a native Mexican coach, we run live small-group Spanish conversation classes throughout the year: Spanish Group Conversation Classes.

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