Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Mexico City plans virtual Day of the Dead celebration

Mexico City is exploring holding virtual Day of the Dead celebrations in the fall in order to maintain traditions in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

Some two million people attended the Day of the Dead parade last year on November 2, which was also broadcast live, said the director of Mexico City’s tourism promotion fund, Paola Félix Díaz.

Now the city is looking to other large cities around the world for ideas on how to carry on traditional practices safely. Her office is also exploring options such as Day of the Dead drive-in theaters, or tours by car as alternatives to dense crowds in the streets. 

A UNESCO-protected celebration, the Day of the Dead as it is celebrated today has its foundation in the deeply rooted Mesoamerican traditions of the indigenous peoples of Mexico and Catholic ritual introduced in the 1600s.

While every region of the country has its own particular way of celebrating the event, the common denominator is the remembrance of a family’s departed loved ones, who are visited at cemeteries and honored by an altar that includes the meals, drinks and vices favored by the deceased.

Mexico City held its first government-sponsored Day of the Dead parade in 2016, inspired by the opening sequences of the James Bond film Spectre, where 007 can be seen chasing a villain through a crowded Day of the Dead celebration. 

Initially, hopes had been to grow the parade to the size of Carnival in Rio, although that is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Source: La Jornada (sp)

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
Mexican soldier and ship

Navy seizes over 17 million liters of stolen fuel in double ‘huachicol’ busts

0
Two separate operations netted enough stolen diesel and hydrocarbons to represent one of Mexico’s biggest fuel theft busts over the past decade.
Soft drinks and chips on display in a store

Junk food ban goes into effect in Mexican schools

2
Chicharrones, hot dogs and juice boxes are a few of the items that will no longer be welcome in Mexican public and private schools.
Police and security agents escort a handcuffed suspect onto a plane

Suspect arrested in case of Tulum security chief’s assassination

0
The state attorney general said "El Rayo" acted on the instructions of a criminal leader from the northern state of Tamaulipas.