Halloween and Day of the Dead

The 27th Día de los Muertos at Hollywood Forever Cemetery fills the grounds with altars, music, art and culinary vendors on Saturday 24 Oct 2026, ticketed.

TipOutside food and drink are not allowed, so plan to eat from the culinary vendors. Everyone 5 and over needs a ticket from ticketweb.com/HF.

Nine nights of Día de los Muertos on Olvera Street, run by its merchants for nearly 40 years, with a procession, altars and free sweet bread, 25 Oct to 2 Nov.

TipThe novenario procession starts at 19:00; arrive by 18:00 for the Danza de la Muerte and eat at the street's Mexican food stands first.

Janal Pixan Cancún is the city's Day of the Dead festival: four nights at Puerto Juárez with a boat procession, and the Cena de Ánimas at Parque de las Palapas with altars, food stalls and a pan de muerto contest.

TipFree transport ran to Puerto Juárez from Malecón Tajamar and El Crucero park in 2025; for food, go to Parque de las Palapas on 1 or 2 November.

Hanal Pixán in Mérida is the Yucatán Day of the Dead, October 31 to November 2 with mucbipollo, the Paseo de las Ánimas candlelight walk and the giant Plaza.

Mexico City's Dia de Muertos parade runs Paseo de la Reforma to the Zocalo on 31 October 2026, then two days of ofrendas, pan de muerto and atole.

Old Town San Diego marks Día de los Muertos with more than 40 altars, a weekend mercado on San Diego Avenue and a candlelit procession to El Campo Santo, with festival days 31 October to 2 November.

TipThe candlelit procession leaves Immaculate Conception Church at 18:00 on 2 November; eat in Old Town before it starts.

Salouween Street dresses Passeig Jaume I for Halloween with food trucks, local restaurant stands, shows and children's workshops; more than 75,000 people came over three days in 2025.

TipIt is a family-scale street party as much as a food event, so expect crowds on the promenade; the food stands run alongside the shows all weekend.

The Festa dei Morti on 1 to 2 November in Palermo is the city's All Souls market festival, with stalls of frutta martorana, biscotti dei morti and pupi di.

Dia de Muertos Tlaquepaque in Guadalajara is the two-day Day of the Dead festival on Plaza Hidalgo, with altares, pan de muerto, mole and mariachi.

For All Souls on 2 November every Neapolitan pasticceria sells torrone dei morti, a soft chocolate and dried-fruit nougat cut from a block shaped like a small coffin. Nothing like the hard Cremona kind.

TipAsk for 'o murticiell'. Buy it by the slice from a pasticceria rather than boxed from a supermarket.

Dia de los Muertos Fort Worth in the Historic Northside each November is a free community festival featuring food stalls, mariachis, ballet folklorico performances, altars.

TipThe parade runs 10:00 to 11:30 along N Main Street north toward the Stockyards; food vendors open at 11:00 at Marine Park.

All Saints on 1 November is Madrid's marzipan day. Pastelerías fill with huesos de santo, marzipan tubes shaped like bones and filled with dulce de yema, sold beside buñuelos de viento.

TipEl Riojano, La Mallorquina and Casa Mira have made them for over a century; the yema filling is the traditional one.

All Saints on 1 November is the city's autumn eating day. Roast chestnut stalls go up across Barcelona and households eat panellets, marzipan balls rolled in pine nuts or almonds, with sweet potato.

TipBuy panellets by weight from a pastisseria in the last week of October; pine nut and almond are the two classic kinds.

Muertos y Marigolds is the South Valley's grassroots Día de los Muertos parade, in its 34th year in 2026, ending at the Westside Community Center with ofrendas, music and Mexican and New Mexican food vendors.

TipOrder pan de muerto ahead from Golden Crown Panaderia, which bakes it in several sizes for Day of the Dead week.

St Martin's Day on 11 November is Porto's chestnut day. Magustos, open-air feasts of chestnuts roasted over embers, run in squares and gardens, drunk with água-pé or jeropiga from the new harvest.

TipÁgua-pé is the light one, made by watering the pomace; jeropiga is fortified with brandy and much stronger.