Halloween and Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) are two holidays that often confuse people to be the same thing. Some believe that The Day of the Dead is the Mexican version of Halloween; which it is not. These two separate holidays are different within beliefs, festivals, and meanings.
A big difference between Halloween and Dia de los Muertos is their meaning behind their holiday. Halloween was once a way for the ancient Celtics to mark the end of summer and the start of the harvest season. They would connect this time of year with death, but not the same way as Dia de los Muertos. On Halloween, we don't celebrate death unlike you would on Day of the Dead. They believe that from October 31st-November 2nd was a time to celebrate the dead. Dia de los Muertos is a day to remember your loved ones and to celebrate death, and to
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How we celebrate Halloween is we dress up in costumes, go to parties, trick-or-treat, or go to haunted houses. But Dia de los Muertos is much more than that. They have huge fiestas (parties) on October 31st through November 2nd, unlike us, where we only celebrate Halloween one day out of the year. They put las flores (flowers), la calavcras (skulls), and el copal (type of incense) on their loved ones la tumba (tomb) or la ofrenda (altar).
Even though there are many differences between these two holidays, there are also some similarities. We both create or buy masks to wear as well as wearing tons of makeup. We also decorate houses with maybe recorte de papel (paper cut out), as well as decorating cementerios (cemeteries) and yards with symbols of the holiday. Also, the two holidays both decorate with skeletons, or in Spanish, they say esqueletos. Other than decoration and masks, the only other similarity between the two are they both are celebrated on October 31st, yet Dia de los Muertos has its extended time