What's movingSunday and Monday4 days ago
The costumes come off on Saturday night. On Sunday, America builds an altar
Dia de los Muertos arrives on 1 and 2 November, and in forty-eight towns on Froligo's seasonal guide it arrives in force. Families build ofrendas for the people they have lost, stacked with marigolds, candles, photographs and the dead's favourite food, and whole neighbourhoods walk to the cemetery by candlelight. Old Town Albuquerque opens its Marigold Mile on 30 October and keeps thirty ofrendas lit through 8 November, with a procession after sunset on the 2nd. Old Town San Diego sets forty altars on its plaza from Saturday to Monday, judges its Catrinas on Sunday, and on Monday night walks San Diego Avenue to El Campo Santo cemetery. MECA fills the Dow School in Houston and Seattle Center fills the Armory on Saturday and Sunday, both free. Cheekwood holds its 27th in Nashville the same days. On Sunday the Nelson-Atkins opens its Path of Memories in Kansas City and Fruitvale in Oakland raises a 34-foot Catrina, both free. Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham goes last, on Monday the 2nd, its 24th year, with a jazz-funeral procession through the old ironworks, $15 in advance.
This is the other half of the weekend, and the gentler half. Most of it is free, nearly all of it is built for families, and the candlelit walks on Monday evening, in Albuquerque and San Diego especially, are the part people talk about afterwards. Bring a photograph. Every celebration here has its own card on the guide, with the hours and the route.
Verified Dates, hours and admission from each organiser's own page, checked 25 October: Old Town Albuquerque and Visit Albuquerque, the Old Town San Diego Chamber and California State Parks, MECA, Seattle Center, Cheekwood, the Nelson-Atkins, the Unity Council (Oakland) and Bare Hands (Sloss Furnaces). Procession start times in San Diego differ between the city's listing and the state park's by an hour, so the time above is the organiser's.
Go deeper Day of the Dead on the Halloween guide (all 48) · Halloween Festivals Near You · Latin festivals on Froligo
