Patzcuaro

What is the Day of the Dead?
Each year the people of the Lake Pátzcuaro region make their way to the cemeteries of their towns and villages to remember and honor their departed loved ones. Somevillages celebrate the festival on the night of November 1st (Noche de Muertos), while others celebrate on the day of November 2nd (Día de los Muertos). Entire communities converge as family members, bothalive and dead, join together in the graveyards to remember, and to honor their rich history and resilient traditional culture. They bring brilliant flowers and candles to decorate graves, as well aspersonal offerings to the departed such as photographs, favorite foods, drinks, and “pan de muertos,” or bread of the dead. Many believe that the spirits of the dead return from “the other side” tojoin them, while others are simply there to honor and remember.

But the celebration of the Day of the Dead is much more than just a visit to the cemeteries. The Day of the Dead is not so much aboutdeath, as it is about life. It is a celebration of life, about viewing death as a part of life, and about living each day to the fullest. The result is a lively and spectacular week-long festival withmusic, dance, great food, fabulous traditional crafts, and friendly people.

Why Pátzcuaro?
A moving and delightful mixture of pre-Columbian and colonial period customs, the Pátzcuaro region’sworld famous celebrations of the Day of the Dead are the most traditional, or least changed “Día de los Muertos” in México. In addition, the quaint villages of the exotic volcanic highlands and lushTropical Slope are fine cultural and architectural relics of the 16th century, while the incomparable Pátzcuaro, founded in 1540 by the humanist Vasco de Quiroga, is crowned México’s most colonial townPátzcuaro and the surrounding lake area have one of the best-known Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico. Markets catering to Day of the Dead abound in all of Michoacán but the best of what is...