Life & Death Traditions Festival

Address:Xcaret Park Chetumal-Puerto Juarez Federal Highway, Km. 282., Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Phone:+52 984 206 0038

Since pre-Hispanic times in Mexico, indigenous people have worshiped death and have conceived it as a duality of life, a cyclic form of nature. With the arrival of the conquerors the cult of death merged with the Christian religion, resulting in a precise date for the celebration of the Day of the Dead. On November 1st and 2nd we celebrate our dead by visiting cemeteries and placing altars in the crypts and in our houses, allowing our dead to leave the afterlife and wander for a few days in the world, visiting their family, homes and friends.

Food, candles, incense, liqueur, flowers, photos, music and personal belongings of the deceased are an essential part of the altars and offerings are prepared with respect by the families to remember those who are gone. Candy skulls, bread, drawings that mock death, verses ridiculing any real character of the arts, science or politics, are part of this tradition and refer to the famous saying: “The dead to the grave and the alive to a blast.”

The Festival of Life and Death Traditions aims to ensure the active participation of society, Mayan communities and artists to incorporate the diversity and cultural richness into the Day of the Dead celebration, by recapturing ethnic, traditional and contemporary practices around this millennial and beautiful Mexican tradition.