Families across Mexico filled cemeteries on Monday for the Day of the Dead. The largest crowds gathered in San Andrés Mixquic, on Mexico City's south-eastern edge, for its candlelit vigil, La Alumbrada. The vigil closed the most heavily attended festival weekend the capital had recorded.
The observance, recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, falls on 2 November, the Catholic feast of All Souls. Relatives cleaned and decorated graves with orange cempasúchil marigolds, candles, pan de muerto and the favourite food and drink of the dead. In Mixquic, in the borough of Tláhuac, thousands of candles were lit across the churchyard cemetery after nightfall.
The Mexico City government said Saturday's Day of the Dead parade along Paseo de la Reforma and into the Zócalo drew more than 1.5 million spectators. A spokesperson for the city's tourism ministry said hotel occupancy in the historic centre had again exceeded 2025 levels.
The ministry attributed the increase partly to international visibility after the capital co-hosted the FIFA World Cup in June and July. The monumental ofrenda in the Zócalo was due to remain open to visitors until 2 November.
The national retail chamber, Concanaco Servytur, said spending on flowers, sugar skulls, bread and altar goods had again risen year on year. Florists in Xochimilco and growers in Puebla and Morelos reported strong demand for marigolds.
Chamber representatives also cited higher costs for candles and transport. Traditional celebrations in Pátzcuaro and on the island of Janitzio in Michoacán likewise drew large numbers of national and foreign visitors overnight.
Anthropologists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico have long warned that the festival's growing commercial profile risks overshadowing its private, family character. In Mixquic, however, residents said the core ritual was unchanged.
"The tourists come and go, but the candles are for our own people, and we stay with them until the morning," a resident tending a family grave told local broadcasters.