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Articles on Day of the Dead

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Children trick or treat and wear Halloween costumes for a full week during Day of the Dead season in Mexico. FG Trade Latin/Collection E+ via Getty Images

Day of the Dead is taking on Halloween traditions, but the sacred holiday is far more than a ‘Mexican Halloween’

Halloween’s influence is transforming popular festivities around Día de los Muertos and its ceremonial customs in rural and urban areas of Mexico in some fascinating ways.
A girl dressed as a ‘catrina’ takes part in the Catrinas Parade in Mexico City to celebrate Day of the Dead. Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images

How ‘La Catrina’ became the iconic symbol of Day of the Dead

An obscure Mexican engraver named José Guadalupe Posada created the satirical skull in the early 1900s and sold it for a penny. But after he died, it took on a life of its own.
Revelers dressed as Catrina, an iconic Day of the Dead skeleton, at a holiday parade in Mexico City, Oct. 21, 2018. Reuters/Andres Stapff

Day of the Dead: From Aztec goddess worship to modern Mexican celebration

It may sound like a solemn affair, but the Day of the Dead – which blends indigenous and Catholic ritual – is a convivial celebration that allows Mexicans to reconnect with deceased loved ones.
La Llorona Durmiente, oil on canvas, 2012 Hector Garza

La Llorona: Hispanic folklore goes mainstream

For more than 500 years, she has wandered, weeping and searching without rest. A ghostly woman in white who is said to have murdered her children, she is doomed to roam the earth, searching for their lost…

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