Now, this episode is dropping on Halloween Day, but rather than talking about Halloween once again, we're instead going to go over how Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is celebrated at the Disneyland Resort in California. We covered a few of the Halloween events in the parks all around the world over the past two episodes, so if you missed those, go ahead and check them out when you get a chance.

Okay, so back to Día de los Muertos... If you visit Disneyland Park during Halloween Time, which usually begins around the end of August, you can find a small section of Frontierland to the left of the Rancho del Zocalo restaurant that is dedicated to this Latin American holiday. 

Across the way at Disney California Adventure, there is Plaza de la Familia, inspired by the Disney-Pixar film Coco, which also celebrates the holiday. It is located in the corner of Paradise Gardens Park, just past Goofy's Sky School.

What Is Día de los Muertos?

Now, just in case you don't know what Dia de Los Muertos is, don't worry, they do have posters in each park providing a brief explanation. The one at Disneyland describes it as a holiday that takes place on All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, while "stemming back to the days of the Aztecs." Over at DCA, the sign explains that it is a "festive occasion" that is "observed each year in early November." From there, they both explain that the core concept is that life should be celebrated, and that this holiday is a joyous time of year to remember those who have died, and to embrace that death is not the end of our connection with those we have lost.

Each poster also explains the iconography of the holiday, which includes calacas (a Mexican-Spanish name for skeleton figures dressed in festive clothing), orange marigold flowers, ofrendas (which are remembrance altars with offerings for the dead), and papel picado (paper cutouts that are draped throughout streets), and quote "special food" that is prepared specifically to "welcome back the souls of ancestors and loved ones for a day of remembrance."

Each poster ends by stating that even though it's celebrated around the same time as Halloween, Dia de los Muertos is not Halloween.

If you listened to our episode about the history of Halloween haunts at theme parks, I briefly explained the history of Halloween, where it went from an ancient Celtic celebration to a Catholic holiday when the church changed the date of All Saints Day to November 1st over a thousand years ago. Well, about a hundred years after that change was made, a priest, Saint Odilo of Cluny, declared November 2nd as All Souls' Day. This was created as a day to celebrate the lives of all other faithful members of the church who had died.

Now, of course, the theme park displays are not celebrations of All Souls' Day. But, I'm bringing this up because if the Church didn't move All Saint's day to the 1st of November back in the 8th or 9th centuries, we wouldn't have the current Halloween season, and without All Souls' Day being created in the 10th century, we wouldn't have Dia de los Muertos celebrated during this same time of year today.

So, that begs the question, what is Dia de los Muertos, and why is it celebrated during All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day?

I had mentioned earlier that the Disneyland Park poster states that the holiday stems back to the Aztecs. The Aztec empire was founded in the 15th century, while the Aztec civilization goes back to the 14th century. That's about 700 years ago... But, according to many historians, the holiday can be traced back to ancient Mesoamerican cultures from around 3,000 years ago.

Now, there is a lot to the beliefs on life and death for these people, and if you're interested in learning more, we have put many resources to check out at the bottom of this article. But, long story short, they didn't see death as the end; instead, they viewed it as a natural part of a larger cycle of life. They would spend the time of year that we know as August offering food, water, and tools to the dead, who they believed were on a journey going through nine levels of challenges. This was a time of celebrating and performing rituals. The monthlong summer celebration was common in Olmec, Mayan, Aztec, and other civilizations from that region, and it evolved a little over the centuries, but the main spirit of the celebrations and rituals was still practiced by the time Spanish Conquistadors took over in 1521.

At the time, Spain was ruled by Catholic Monarchs, which meant the plan wasn't just to take over the land, but also to spread the religion, and soon after that 1521 overthrow of the Aztec Empire, most, if not all, indigenous people were converted to Catholicism.

Before the end of the century, the pre-Columbian celebration of life and death moved to the beginning of November to align with All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day because of similarities between the two, focusing on celebrating the lives of the dead. Dia de los Muertos never fully merged with the Catholic holidays, though, and today, November 1st is dedicated to children who have died, while November 2nd is a time to remember adults.

So yeah, in a nutshell, that's what Dia de los Muertos is, and why it's celebrated during this time of year. But, now the next question is, where did that iconography that we see for the holiday come from?

The Symbols of the Season

Like I said earlier, the posters in the parks mention calacas, marigolds, ofrendas, papel picado, and "special food."

Calacas & La Calavera Catrina

First, the calacas, which again are skeletons dressed in festive clothing, can trace their roots back just as far as the holiday itself, around 3,000 years ago. There are records of actual skulls put on display, but there is also pre-Columbian art of skeletons. Art based on Mictlantecuhtli, the Queen of the Underworld, was a fairly common figure during the ancient Dia de los Muertos festivities. The more recent interpretations of calacas come from a political cartoonist and Mexican printmaker named José Guadalupe Posada. He created thousands of drawings of skeletons wearing clothes as satire and political commentary from the late 19th century and early into the 20th. He referred to them as skulls, or calaveras. In the 1910s, he created an etching of a skeleton dressed as an elegant woman wearing a fashionable hat. He originally gave her the name of La Calavera Garbancera, which was a derogatory name for a Mexican who rejected their roots and pretended they were European. Some say that he later renamed her La Calavera Catrina, this time based on the slang term "catrin," which meant a well-dressed person. While others say artist Diego Rivera coined the name when he included her in his 1947 mural "Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central [Dream of a Sunday afternoon in the Alameda Central].” Either way, there is a large statue of La Catrina at Disneyland among their Day of the Dead display, who, according to the art director, has a different dress every year.

Marigolds

Next, for the marigolds, there is an ancient Legend of the Cempasuchil flower, which is the Nahuatal name for those marigolds. It is a myth about a couple deeply in love, but the man, Huitzilin, goes to war and dies, then the woman, Xochitl, with her heart broken, goes to the top of a mountain to try to get the sun god Tonatiuh to unite her with her love. The sun god decides to help her out and turns her into a bright orange cempasuchil flower, which was immediately visited by a hummingbird, which was Huitzilin reborn. This story, they say, is why marigolds are associated with celebrating the dead in Latin America, including during Dia de los Muertos. (Fun fact, the guy's name Huitzilin is the Nahuatl word for hummingbird.) Other reasons for marigolds being associated with the holiday include that they grow well in Mexico during autumn, and they have a strong smell and bright color that are said to help attract the souls of the dead. Sometimes the flowers are spread from the gravesite to the house where an ofrenda has a photo of the loved one.

Ofrendas

Talking about ofrendas, like I had said, the earliest traditions of this holiday include offerings to the dead. And the word ofrendas is a Spanish word that means "offerings," but the term is also use to refer to the altars put up during Dia de los Muertos specifically for those offerings. If you have seen the movie Coco, you know what they look like. If you haven't, go watch it, it's a great movie. In the movie, the photos on the ofrenda were kind of the main focus, but traditionally, they also have items that represent the four elements: water, earth, fire, and wind. This usually includes a bowl of water, both for the loved one to drink but also to pay honor to water, food for them to eat, but that also represents the earth, and candles representing fire, and papel picado representing wind.

Papel Picado

If you remember, papel picado was on the posters in the parks. They describe it as paper cutouts that are draped throughout streets, but they are also often found on ofrendas. The term itself means "chopped" or "punched" paper, and it's believed that the art form goes back to the Aztecs using bark to create religious works of art in this method. It is believed that tissue started being used after the Spanish introduced Chinese tissue to the region in the 17th century. There is a legend that the modern version that we know, with brightly colored tissue or plastic, was first created in San Salvador Huixolotla in the Mexican state of Puebla. They didn't really start spreading to other regions of Mexico until the 1920s, but by the 1970s they had become a common decoration for ofrendas, as well as buildings and streets.

Pan de Muerto

And that leaves us with special foods, which can include tamales, pozole, flan, horchata, really whatever the deceased loved ones liked the most is what will be put on the altar for them. Specific to Dia de los Muertos, though, is Pan de Muerto, which a sweet bread that's decorated with bone-shaped dough. It round shape of the bread symbolizes the cycle of life and death. Some say that Pan de Muerto was first created after the Spanish brought wheat flour to Mexico in the early 1500s, while others claim Aztecs made a version with amaranth, honey, and human blood as an offering to the gods. While another story is that Aztec priests would sacrifice young women, placing a heart in a clay pot and then mixing it with amaranth before eating it as an offering to the thank the gods, and that Spanish Catholic priests convinced the indigenous people to bake bread and uses red sugar to represent blood instead.

Sugar Skulls

Talking about people being uncomfortable with local customs, another item associated with Dia de los Muertos and can often be found on ofrendas are sugar skulls. According to historians, these started being created because Spaniards didn't like the way the indigenous people used actual human skulls on altars for the dead. Italian missionaries had brought the artform over in the 17th century, and sugar was abundant in Mexico, making it a cheap way to create art. It was already being used for Easter decorations, and by the 18th century actual skulls were replaced with sugar skulls.

Why Dia de los Muertos is at Disney

Okay, so we've covered a lot about how and why Dia de los Muertos is celebrated. But, there is another question... Why is this in Disney theme parks?

Well, Day of the Dead was a relatively unknown holiday in the United States until the 1970s, when Chicano artists and activists started creating and sharing art from the holiday in East Los Angeles. The first event where the art was shown was sponsored by Self Help Graphic & Art, a nonprofit that wanted to educate people about Mexican heritage and culture. It gradually became more popularly recognized in the United States, but it wasn't introduced into Disneyland until 2007. 

The display was installed in the El Zócalo Park area to the left of the Rancho del Zocalo restaurant, and in front of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It was originally designed by Dan Torres, a Senior Art Director for the Disney Live Entertainment department of Imagineering. According to his LinkedIn page, he began working for Disney in 1991, working on Toontown in Anaheim, Tower of Terror in Walt Disney World, and Storybookland in Paris. He would eventually become a Senior Art Director in October of 2001. According to an Instagram post from the official Disney Live Entertainment account from two years ago, he spent a long time researching and talking with vendors on Olvera Street in Los Angeles for inspiration for the Dia de los Muertos tribute. He is quoted as saying, "The more we know about the history of Day of the Dead the more we want to celebrate. Fear turns into smiles, sorrow turns into happiness, and death turns into life." He also mentioned that the Catrina figure changes her costume every year, so make sure to keep an eye out for that. The earliest reference that we could find about this addition to Disneyland is from a MiceChat forum post from September 7th, 2007, with people speculating on what the "Rancho Del Zocalo 'Dia de los Muertes(sic)'"  would be, based on the category being "Theatre" and designer notes describing "festoon lights...all dipped in custom Rosco Colorine colors." If you know more about the conversations that occurred that lead to this addition of the park being greenlit, please come share them with us on our private Facebook page, Where In The Park Explorers. We would love to know how the original pitch went and how the location in the park was decided upon.

But yeah, the display was well received, and has returned every year since (as always, except for 2020). Continuing, well, this is not 100% park-related, but in 2013, Disney did receive some public backlash after they tried to trademark the phrase "Dia de los Muertos" because they wanted to use the name on merchandise for their upcoming film by that name. They eventually dropped the trademark requests and changed the film's name to Coco.

And talking about Coco, that film is the reason we received a second tribute to the holiday, this time over at Disney California Adventure. It was first installed during Halloween Time in 2017 from September 15th through November 2nd, even though the movie wouldn't release to theaters until the end of November. It was also designed by Dan Torres, along with Creative Director Susana Tubert. The original version included an exhibit out of the film, plus "A Musical Celebration of Coco," performances by Mariachi Divas, and delicious foods, and it would also include much of the Dia de los Muertos iconography already described above, along with sections for crafts, a Tree of Life, and other photo spots.

The Tree of Life - Arbol de la Vida

The tree of life, or Arbol de la Vida, is where guests are encouraged to write memories and stories about remembered loved ones. The version found in the park has changed a little over the years, but the core concept of a bright, colorful, stylized family tree-inspired design with calacas among the branches. It is inspired by pottery and ceramic traditions from the central highlands of Mexico. It isn't clear when the first artistic tree with people on it was created, but we do know that early Spanish friars commissioned pieces based on the Adam and Eve story from the Bible, which ended up looking similar to what we now know as Mexican Tree of Life art. The look of the tree found in the park is more closely inspired by those created by Aurelio Flores from Izucar de Matamoros. Aurelio created candelabras and incense burners in this style starting in the 1920s, with the first known use of the name Arboles de la Vida to refer to these works coming from a book about Mexican folk art written by Patricia Fent Ross in 1952. 

Alebrijes

Another piece of Mexican art represented in this Plaza de Familia is alebrijes. There are sculptures, puppets, and arts and crafts of paper masks, dedicated to these colorful animals that we prominent characters in the film Coco. This year, they even introduced a Dante sipper, that's the alebrije chihuahua from the movie. The other alebrije is a large winged jaguar/cougar with ram horns named Pepita. Watching the movie Coco, I assumed these were mythical creatures with a history in Mesoamerican culture, but it turns out that they were created in Mexico City in the 1940s by an artist named Pedro Linares. He was a folk artist, creating papier-mâché pinatas, carnival masks, and religious figures that were sold throughout Mexico City. But, one night, he claimed, he was very sick and while unconscious he saw these creatures in a dream, and they were chanting "alebrije... alebrije... alebrije!" This was a word he had never heard before, and that has no historical use or meaning. He woke up from the dream, and when he felt better, he began creating papier-mâché art of these creatures that he saw. Today, they are often made of wood, with artist Manuel Jimenez being on record as the first to translate Linares's art from papier-mâché.

Coco, Culture, and Controversy

So yeah, I guess that last thing to cover is, what is the story behind why the movie Coco get made?

Back in September of 2011, Lee Unkrich, who had begun his career at Pixar as an editor on the original Toy Story back in 1994, pitched the idea of a boy learning about his Mexican heritage. John Lasseter, who was still the head of Pixar at that time, loved the idea, and had filmmakers get on a plane to Mexico to experience Dia de los Muertos in person that same year. It was the first of many research trips taken to create the story for the film. Unkrich ended up directing and co-writing, along with co-director and writer Adrian Molina, who had joined Pixar in 2007 to work on 2D animation for Ratatouille. There is an article from 2018 on Disney.com where they interview Molina about how these research trips inspired the films, including Molina coming across Xolo dogs on the streets of Oaxaca,  as well as visits to alebrije, shoemaker, and papel picado workshops.

And well, I guess I can also mention that in 2025, a doll inspired by Miguel and a toy version of the alebrije Dante were added to Disneyland's "it's a small world" ride, standing on a pillar adorned with papel picado.

Epcot's Remember Me Tribute

Over at Epcot in Florida, there is an exhibit just as you walk through the front doors of the pyramid at the Mexico pavilion, dedicated to Dia de los Muertos, inspired by the movie Coco as well. The exhibit is named Remember Me! and was also put in during the fall of 2017, a few months before the movie came out.

It includes several pieces of art representing what we have covered here in this episode, including pre-Hispanic items such as a clay skull of Mictlantecuhtli, the God of Death, and there is an entire display dedicated to La Calavera Catrina, including a copy of Calaveras de la cucaracha, una fiesta en ultratumba (that translates to Skulls of the Cockroach, a party in the afterlife), which was the third publication to use the image of Catrina that was etched by Jose Guadalupa Posada, from roughly the 1920s. There is also a more recent candelabra of a tree of life, and an entire wall of sugar skulls.

Final Thoughts

So yeah, the next time you're at the Disneyland Resort during Halloween Time, or at Epcot while the exhibit is still running, if you have even a slightly better appreciation for what you see in the parks, then I've done my job today.

As always, if you have anything you want to share with us, or just want to join a community of people who love all things theme parks, join our private Facebook group Where In The Park Explorers, and if you want to see photos of some of the things we have covered today, go check out our blog at whereinthepark.com/podcast.

Thanks for joining me on this journey, and until next time, we'll see you... Somewhere in the park.

 

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Articles referenced in this article:

Amols.com - History of Papel Picado
AmericanArt.si.edu - Traditions and Change: The Transformation of Dia de los Muertos in the U.S.
Arizona Central - Dia de los Muertos: Its rich history and why not all Mexicans celebrate Day of the Dead
As the Bunny Hops - Behind The Scenes of Disney-Pixar’s Coco with Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina and Darla K. Anderson
Disney.com - We Took a Trip to Mexico With the Filmmakers Behind Disney Pixar's Coco
Grace Museum - Dia de los Muertos: Symbols and Traditions
History.com - Day of the Dead
Inside Mexico - The Legend of the Day of the Dead Cempasuchil Flower
Instagram - Disney Live Entertainment - Meet the Team: Dan Torres
KennythePirate.com - Dia de los Muertos: History, Traditions, and Disney Celebrations
LA Times Español - El colorido latino toma protagonismo en las celebraciones de esta temporada en los parques Disney
LWLies.com - Beyond Infinity: Lee Unkrich on the past, present and future of Pixar
Mexican Food Journal - Pan de Muerto
MexicanSugarSkull.com - History of the Sugar Skull
MexicoInMyPocket.com - Mexican Tree of Life
MexicoNewsDaily.com - Death comes alive with calacas, Mexico’s skeletal figures
MiceChat.com - HalloweenTime: "Dia de los Muertos" at Rancho del Zocalo
Mitu - How Chicano Artists Turned Día de los Muertos Into a US Movement That Redefined Identity
NPR.org - 500 Years Later, The Spanish Conquest of Mexico is Still Being Debated
Orange County Register - 10 Things to Know about Disneyland's Day of the Dead Celebrations
Popsugar.com - Disneyland's Decorations For Día de los Muertos Are Just the Right Amount of Perfection
Refinery29.com - Sugar Skulls: They're Not Just Here For Your Entertainment 
Salsaology.com - Celebrating Life and Memory: The Significance of Food on Dia de los Muertos
Undercover Tourist - How to Celebrate Dia de los Muertos at Disneyland!
Wake Forest University - Mexico: Create a Colorful Alebrije
WebArchive.org - Folk Art Guide: Papel Picado
Whatcom Museum - La Calavera Catrina: Mexico's Eternal Feminine Muse
WordPress - CollinsRace1 - Celebrating 2023 Día de los Muertos at Disneyland
WordPress - CrystalTrueLove - Zocalo Park, 2022
Yes! Magazine - Chicano Artists Resist Commercialization of Dia de los Muertos
ZinniaFolkArts.com - What is a Mexican Tree of Life?