Wendy Fonarow arrived in Mexico City late in October 2017, eager to observe the nation’s Día de Muertos or Day of the Dead. Celebrations for this holiday—also called Día de los Muertos—start on the evening of October 31 and in fact span several days during which people celebrate lost loved ones.
On November 1, they memorialize children, and on the second, adults. In many regions of Latin America, families prepare ofrendas, or altars, dedicated to the deceased and replete with food and mementos. Fonarow, an anthropologist at Glendale Community College in California, anticipated visiting such shrines, viewing graves bedecked with marigolds and candles, and tasting classic sugar skulls. What she didn’t expect to find was Halloween.
In fact, her friends in Mexico City were eager to show her a local home famous for its Halloween decorations. A handful of tombstones festooned the yard; skeletons and a ghost or two lurked among jack-o’-lanterns and cornstalks. “It just looked like a typical, not over-the-top American suburban decoration,” Fonarow recalls. This kind of decoration, while still unusual in the city, made it clear that Halloween had arrived in the capital.
Then she traveled to the state of Michoacán, famed for its traditional Día de Muertos festivities. Upon her arrival, on October 31, she saw costumed children toting apple-sized jack-o’-lantern baskets. Fonarow rushed into a candy store to procure sweets, but most people just gave pesos. No matter what they received, the kids begged for more with the phrase “tan pequeño”—“so little.” This import and fusion of Halloween with other holiday traditions is not unique to Mexico: The U.S. version of Halloween has gone global in the past few decades. It’s traveled thanks to companies eager to sell candy and costumes, as well as Hollywood movies and TV programs—such as The Simpsons and Sesame Street—and Instagram and YouTube, which young people use to spread the fun of costumes and celebrations.
