How Dia de los Muertos is celebrated in Mexico, Latin America, and all around the world

Los Angeles is home to people from all over México and Latin America, and as such, visitors will have the opportuinity to bare witness to a transnational celebration. Every year, the Hollywood Forever Cemetery opens its gates to all Angelenos to join in on the festivities. Extravagant altars, statues, and decorations adorn the tombs that families curate to the likings of their dearly departed friends and family. Folks can enjoy a wide array of delicacies such as pan de muerto, champurrado, and of course, tacos and pupusas. Live entertainment includes, but is not limited to, traditional Aztec and folklorico dances, along with mariachi bands that play all night.

While Día de los Muertos typically consists of altars, parades, and sugar skulls, the current state of violence in México has given this tradition a whole new meaning. As women and girls contiune to dissapear, community members gather around to make altars for victims of femicide. Here, Day of the Dead becomes a time for not only families, but entire countries to mourn the injustices that prevail.

Residents from Tonacatepeque, a municipality in El Salvador, dress up in scary costumes to attend La Calabiuza, a celebration that aims to reclaim Indigenous traditions while rejecting modern Americanized Halloween traditons. During the festivities, people march dressed in skeleton costumes with torches to the local cemetery. Music, dance, and performances are accompanied by ayote en miel, a delicacy made from squash and honey.

Sumpango is a small town in Guatemala where every year, people gather to bear witness to beautiful kites being flown in the wind in honor of those who have passed on. These colorful kites are a symbol of the union between the world of the living and of the underworld. It can take approximately 40 days to create a hand-painted kite from woven cloth. According to the locals, the kites help guide the spirits on their journeys back to Earth to reunite once again with their loved ones.

While we have grown accustomed to the traditional Mexican pan de muerto depicted in mainstream media, Guaguas de pan is a sweet bread served with colada morada during Día de los Muertos festivities in Ecuador. Bread babies are sweet bread shaped into doll-like figures, and decorated with an icing made from powdered sugar. Colada morada, a purple fruit-filled drink made with blue corn flour, is paired with the sweet bread. The recipe and tradition can be traced back to the early 19th century.

Traditional tantawawas, bread shaped as children, sits on a table as an offering to the dead during Day of the Dead celebrations in El Alto, Bolivia. In comparison to Ecuadorian Guaguas de pan, this delicacy is flavored with either cinnamon or anise. The name is derived from the Quechua language, which is spoken by millions of people in Bolivia. Tantawawas can be small or even life-sized, and every year a competition is held to see who can bake the largest bread child.

The Philippines were once a Spanish colony, and as such, Catholic traditions were incorporated into Filipino culture. Undás is celebrated on the first day of November as families gather around in the cemeteries where their loved ones are buried to share a meal, create altars, and pray for their dearly departed.

Traditionally, people all throughout Spain purchase flowers to decorate their loved ones' graves while churches hold special masses. In the northern region of the country, friends and families travel to the countryside to partake in a castañada. Chestnuts are roasted in a campfire accompanied by stories and other treats like Buñuelos de viento, a fried dough fritter.