Every year, as October draws to a close, Mexico fills with marigolds, candles, colourful skulls and altars dedicated to the dead. The Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos) has become one of the country’s most recognisable celebrations, to the point of representing, in the international imagination, a particular vision of Mexican identity. Yet behind these familiar images lies a history far more complex than it might initially appear. Some practices are deeply rooted in Mexican communities, while other forms of representation, now widely regarded as traditional, are considerably more recent.

Could the Day of the Dead therefore be less ancient than we think? The question is not intended to deny its historical roots, but rather to understand how traditions are constructed, transformed and given new meanings over time. To explore this evolution, we must look at indigenous beliefs, Catholic celebrations, the caricatures of José Guadalupe Posada, the murals of Diego Rivera and, more recently, Hollywood cinema.

When James Bond Inspired a Real-Life Parade

In 2015, the film Spectre, starring Daniel Craig as James Bond, opened with a spectacular sequence set in the streets of Mexico City. Thousands of people dressed as skeletons take part in an enormous Day of the Dead parade. The costumes, floats and monumental figures create a fascinating spectacle, immediately associated with Mexican culture. But one detail deserves attention: at the time, this large annual parade did not exist in the form portrayed in the film.

The success of this cinematic representation helped inspire a real event. In 2016, Mexico City organised a major Day of the Dead parade, incorporating elements of the aesthetic popularised by the film. Since then, this type of celebration has become an established feature of the capital’s cultural and tourist landscape. The example is revealing: an image created for cinema can influence the way a society celebrates and publicly presents its own traditions.

It would nevertheless be misleading to conclude that Hollywood invented the Day of the Dead. Family altars, offerings, cemetery visits and commemorations of deceased relatives existed long before Spectre. What the film helped transform was primarily the spectacular and public dimension of the celebration in the capital. Understanding this distinction means separating longstanding cultural practices from their contemporary representations.

Day of the Dead Origins: A More Complex History Than It Seems

The most widespread account presents the Day of the Dead as a pre-Hispanic tradition that has survived for centuries almost unchanged. This explanation contains an element of truth, but it considerably simplifies the history. Indigenous societies in Mexico maintained complex ritual relationships with their dead, while Spanish colonisation introduced the Catholic celebrations of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, observed on 1 and 2 November. Today’s practices emerged through encounters, adaptations and transformations that varied across regions and communities.

UNESCO describes the indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead

as a combination of pre-Hispanic rituals and Catholic celebrations. In many communities, the festivities mark the symbolic return of deceased loved ones, who are welcomed with flowers, candles, food and objects placed on family altars. These practices have an essential family and community dimension that cannot be reduced to the parades and costumes now widely shared on social media.

Historians nevertheless warn against assuming an uninterrupted and perfectly linear continuity between precolonial Mexico and contemporary celebrations. The forms observed today developed through successive religious, political and social contexts. To describe a tradition as living is precisely to recognise its ability to incorporate new elements without necessarily losing its connection to the past.

La Catrina: An Icon That Has Not Always Existed

Among the figures now inseparable from the Day of the Dead, La Catrina occupies a particularly prominent place. Her skeletal face, elegant clothing and elaborate hat have become ubiquitous motifs in decorations, face painting and popular representations of the celebration. Yet this image does not come directly from pre-Hispanic civilisations. Its origins lie in Mexican social satire around the turn of the twentieth century.

The printmaker José Guadalupe Posada created a figure known as the Calavera Garbancera, a female skull wearing an elegant hat. The image belonged to a satirical tradition that used skeletons to ridicule human behaviour and social distinctions. Beneath the fashionable appearance lay a sharp reminder: death ultimately erases privileges and hierarchies. At that time, the figure looked very different from the fully dressed Catrina we recognise today.

From Social Caricature to National Symbol

The transformation of this figure continued several decades later. In 1947, Diego Rivera gave her a new dimension in his monumental mural Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central (Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central). The skeletal figure now wears a long dress and occupies a central position among characters representing different moments in Mexican history. Standing alongside José Guadalupe Posada and a young Diego Rivera, she becomes one of the most recognisable elements of this vast composition. Through this artistic reinterpretation, La Catrina gradually acquired a new cultural significance.

This evolution demonstrates how profoundly a symbol can change its meaning over time. Born from social satire, La Catrina became a popular character and eventually an international symbol of the Day of the Dead. Her history reminds us that what we now regard as an ancestral tradition may also be the result of relatively recent artistic creations, adopted and reinterpreted by successive generations.

How a Tradition Became a Symbol of Mexican Identity

During the twentieth century, particularly in the context of cultural nation-building after the Mexican Revolution, references to indigenous cultures, folk art and regional traditions acquired renewed importance. Artists, institutions and cultural policies helped shape a national identity in which certain local practices became widely shared symbols. The Day of the Dead formed part of this process, while continuing to be experienced in different ways by families and communities throughout the country.

International recognition subsequently increased the celebration’s visibility. In 2003, the indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead was proclaimed by UNESCO a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. In 2008, it was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This recognition primarily concerns the cultural practices of the communities that maintain them, rather than a single, fixed version of the celebration.

Alongside this recognition came worldwide exposure through tourism, photography, social media and audiovisual productions. Films such as Spectre and Coco introduced millions of viewers to the visual world of the Day of the Dead. Such popularity can encourage greater interest in Mexican culture, but it also raises an important question: what happens to community traditions when the celebration is increasingly presented through its most spectacular images?

Is a Tradition Less Authentic When It Changes?

It may be tempting to contrast an ancient, supposedly authentic celebration with a modern version considered artificial. Yet this opposition does not do justice to the complexity of cultural practices. A tradition is not necessarily a set of customs transmitted unchanged over centuries. It can preserve profound meanings while evolving in form, location and methods of transmission.

The Day of the Dead illustrates this tension between continuity and transformation particularly well. Family altars, remembrance of the deceased, offerings and community gatherings now coexist with parades, artistic installations and tourist events. These different expressions do not all tell the same story, but they belong to a changing cultural landscape, continually reinterpreted by the people who keep it alive.

Understanding the Day of the Dead origins therefore does not mean searching for a single date of birth. Rather, it involves examining how beliefs, religious practices, artistic creations and contemporary representations have come together to form a celebration now recognised around the world.

In Strasbourg, Learning to See Cultures Differently

At ELE USAL Strasbourg, we believe that learning Spanish also means discovering the cultures of Spanish-speaking countries. On 24 October 2026, our school organised a Day of the Dead workshop as part of its activities for children. Participants explored the history of the celebration, prepared an altar, arranged offerings and shared traditional pan de muerto, the sweet bread associated with the occasion.

The workshop offered an opportunity to explore the tradition through practical activities and a shared cultural experience. It also encouraged reflection on remembrance, symbolism and cultural diversity, showing that a celebration can never be reduced to its decorations. We would like to warmly thank Julio and Daniel, who designed and organised the workshop, as well as Diana and Fátima, who work with the children every Saturday.

This approach reflects our philosophy of language teaching: learning a language also means discovering the histories, perspectives and debates that shape the societies in which it is spoken. Traditions can thus become gateways to a more nuanced understanding of the Spanish-speaking world.

Further Reading

To explore this history in greater depth, the following resources provide useful historical and cultural context:

UNESCO — Indigenous Festivity Dedicated to the Dead, on the community and heritage dimensions of the celebration.

Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), for research and historical resources from Mexico.

Spanish Courses at ELE USAL Strasbourg, to continue exploring the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures.

New Spanish Courses Starting in November 2026, for information about upcoming sessions and registration.

Editorial note: Contemporary Day of the Dead celebrations take many different forms. This article examines their historical and cultural evolution without claiming to represent the full diversity of practices among Mexican communities.