Honoring Deceased Loved Ones at Día de los Muertos Celebrations

These 6 cities are hosting festive Day of the Dead events

a cemetery with dia de los muertos decorations and flowers

Public commemorations of Día de los Muertos are held throughout the country, with museum exhibits, festivals and parades. Here, a photo of grave decorating in Tzintzuntzan, Mexico, is on display at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago.

Ann Murdy/National Museum of Mexican Art

Robin L. Flanigan,

AARP

Published October 03, 2025

When it comes to Día de los Muertos, an annual tradition otherwise known as Day of the Dead, there is no mourning. The Mexican holiday is jam-packed with traditions, meaningful symbols and colorful imagery. It is an occasion to honor and commemorate deceased loved ones, especially ancestors. Though the holiday is often recognized privately among family members, some cities celebrate with parades and festivals that include music, dancing, feasts and more.

“As a Chicana, I believe Día de los Muertos offers a healthy way to process grief and honor those who are no longer with us,” says Deborah Ramos, director of the Festival de las Calaveras (“Festival of the Skulls”) in Minneapolis. Grief can lead to depression, anxiety, hypertension, lack of sleep, isolation and physical and mental decline among older adults, according to a study in The Senior Care Pharmacist.

“By engaging in this tradition, my energy is uplifted, and I feel both healed and strengthened,” she says. “Día de los Muertos reminds me that death does not sever our bonds; it reshapes them. In connecting with my ancestors and loved ones in consciousness, I find comfort, resilience and a deeper sense of belonging.”

Though traditionally celebrated on Nov. 1 and 2, celebrations often take place up to a month beforehand.

Here are six locations you can visit to participate in the reunion of the living and the dead. (And they’re a great place to bring grandkids — who, thanks to Pixar’s 2017 movie Coco, may know more about the traditional Mexican holiday than you do.)

performers dressed in dia de los muertos costumes

San Antonio’s Muertos Fest is in its 13th year.

Francisco Cortes

San Antonio

In its 13th year, downtown San Antonio’s Muertos Fest draws revelers to the site of the 1968 World’s Fair to pay homage to the dead.

The free, two-day event attracts some 135,000 people for processions, workshops, markets, music and more.

Students from Mexico City’s National Autonomous University of Mexico will construct an ofrenda — an offering, commonly in the form of a large, elaborate altar — honoring the Chili Queens. These women brought the Mexican tradition of open-air food stands to the city in the 1880s and are credited with pioneering San Antonio’s Tex-Mex cuisine.

The festival feels uniquely Texan because the altars often feature regionally specific items, such as San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Cowboys memorabilia.

In addition to the altars, “There’s a genre of music called the San Antonio sound that generally appeals to older adults who experienced that when they were teenagers in the ’60s,” says Jim Mendiola, artistic director of Muertos Fest. He explains that it’s a hybrid of Tejano and soul music from that era. When: Oct. 25-26; a special tribute to San Antonio singer-songwriter and accordionist legend Flaco Jiménez, with altar viewing, takes place on Oct. 24.

Live performances are part of the celebration at the National Museum of Mexican Art’s Day of the Dead Xicágo.

Courtesy National Museum of Mexican Art

Chicago

The National Museum of Mexican Art marks Día de los Muertos with much more than an exhibition. It has a Day of the Dead season that runs through December, and everything is free.

For Día de los Muertos Xicágo, the museum’s backyard will showcase visual displays revealing the story of the Day of the Dead, with ofrendas (including a special light installation projected onto the building’s exterior), live performances and art activities.

As part of Viva la Vida, the museum’s monthly workshop series, creative adults 55 and older can attend award-winning Latinx poet C.T. Salazar’s workshop on writing calaverita poems — witty and satirical verses that rhyme and take a playful, teasing jab at death. Participants will receive a guided tour of the museum’s Día de los Muertos exhibition, featuring striking ofrendas and works by artists from the U.S. and several regions of Mexico. When: Oct. 25 for the outdoor festival; Oct. 30 for Viva la Vida: Calaverita Poems; entire exhibition through Dec. 14.

Minneapolis

Festival de las Calaveras honors both ancestral and modern interpretations of Día de los Muertos.

Multidisciplinary artists fuse traditional and contemporary styles that show “the depth and diversity of Latino creativity, moving well past the one-dimensional portrayals [such as salsa or tropical dance music] that too often dominate popular media,” says festival director Ramos.

In addition to an opening ceremony featuring spoken-word poets and a choral ensemble from Mexico City, watch for puppet bikes — a kind of theater on wheels — and a painter creating pieces in real time as performance art.

Since 2013, the festival has connected people across generations, Ramos says. Even those who prefer “sitting and resting and observing everything happening” appreciate “a very dynamic environment,” she says. When: Nov. 1.

a woman in dia de los muertos makeup and dress

Women in elaborate dress and skull makeup pay homage to La Catrina, a Day of the Dead icon, during Kansas City’s Day of the Dead Weekend.

Courtesy Central Area Betterment Association

Kansas City, Kansas

A main draw of Kansas City’s Day of the Dead Weekend is the Catrina Club, a group of women in elaborate dress and skull makeup paying homage to La Catrina, a Day of the Dead icon. Each Catrina — a symbol born from a political lithograph by Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada in the early 1900s — visits with onlookers and poses for pictures.

Revelers who want their faces painted like a skull (known as calavera makeup) can stop by one of many booths operated by local fundraising organizations. The festivities take place along several blocks of Central Avenue. When: Nov. 1.

a group of musicians pose for a picture while holidng their instruments

Pasatono Orquesta, an ensemble dedicated to the musical culture of the Mixtec people, will perform during Lincoln Center’s Día de Muertos Celebration.

Anette Perez

New York City

Lincoln Center’s Día de Muertos Celebration includes a free performance by Pasatono Orquesta, an ensemble dedicated to the musical culture of the Mixtec people, the third-largest Indigenous group in Mexico. The music pays homage to the old bands of wind instruments, strings and percussion that are nearly extinct today in the Mixteca, which includes parts of the Mexican states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Puebla.

The audience is invited to bring copies of photographs, notes, letters and other offerings — they won’t be returned, so don’t bring the originals — to the community ofrenda in the David Rubenstein Atrium. When: Nov. 1.

Lowriders from the Old Town Car Club in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are decorated with marigolds and other Día de los Muertos decorations.

lowriders with dia de los muertos decorations

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Albuquerque’s Día de los Muertos festivities take place in Old Town, one of the oldest Spanish villas in the country, and pay homage to multiple New Mexican cultural influences.

The Historic Old Town Association incorporates globitos, which are remote-controlled, miniature hot-air balloons, and lowrider cars with Aztec dancers and matachines, traditional religious dances.

Lowriders, which were an expression of pride among Mexican American youth in the 1940s, will be decorated with marigolds — the iconic musk-scented flower said to lead the dead back to their loved ones — and line the streets at various times.

A perk for the older crowd: Old Town’s blocks are based on the traditional Spanish villa layout and much smaller than the average city block, making them easily walkable, says Sara Mancini, chair of the Historic Old Town Association’s events committee. When: Oct. 25-Nov. 2.

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