Mexico Festivals and Celebrations

Before the list, one practical warning

Book accommodation and flights many months ahead for Day of the Dead in Oaxaca or Michoacan, and for the Guelaguetza. These are not busy weekends; they are the dates on which those cities are full. And several of these move, because they follow the church calendar rather than the civil one. Confirm the date for your own year.

Dia de Muertos, the first days of November

The Day of the Dead is a commemoration of specific dead relatives. Families build an ofrenda, an altar, at home with photographs, marigolds, candles, water, bread and the food and drink the person liked, and then spend a night at the grave. It is affectionate, often cheerful, and it is not a costume party. See our Mexico culture and etiquette guide for how to be present at one well.

The observance is strongest in Oaxaca and in Michoacan, where the lakeside villages around Patzcuaro are famous for the candlelit night in the cemeteries. Note that Michoacan carries a travel advisory with Morelia and Patzcuaro explicitly excepted, and the exception is specific about the roads, so read our Mexico travel safety guide before planning that version of it.

In the Costa Chica the same days carry the Danza de los Diablos, which is the Afro-Mexican observance and a different thing again. Our guide to Afro-Mexican heritage takes that up.

Guelaguetza, Oaxaca, the two Mondays after the middle of July

Delegations from the eight regions of Oaxaca bring their own dances, music and dress to the city over two weeks, culminating on two successive Mondays. It is the largest gathering of indigenous Oaxacan cultures anywhere and it is a genuine cultural exchange rather than a show assembled for visitors, though the main auditorium performances are ticketed and sell out.

The city's historic center is inscribed on the World Heritage List together with Monte Alban, and the festival fills it completely. Book early or stay outside and travel in.

Semana Santa, the week before Easter

The largest domestic travel week of the year. Processions everywhere, elaborate ones in Taxco and San Miguel de Allende, and the beaches full of Mexican families. Prices rise, roads are busy, and it is a wonderful time to be in a town and a difficult time to move between them.

Independence, the night of 15 September

The Grito de Dolores is called from balconies across the country on the night of the fifteenth, with the largest in the Zocalo in Mexico City, and the sixteenth is the holiday itself, with parades. Expect crowds, flags, fireworks and a great deal of noise. This is a national civic occasion rather than a tourist event, and it is better for it.

Cinco de Mayo, 5 May

Worth including precisely to correct the expectation. It commemorates the Battle of Puebla and is a substantial celebration in Puebla and a minor one elsewhere in Mexico. It is not Mexican independence, and it is a far bigger occasion in the United States than in the country whose history it belongs to. If you want to see it properly, go to Puebla.

Las Posadas, 16 to 24 December

Nine nights of processions reenacting the search for lodging, moving house to house with candles, songs and food, ending at Christmas. Neighborhood rather than civic, and if you are invited to one, go.

Carnival, February or March

Tied to Easter and therefore moving. Largest in Veracruz and Mazatlan, both of which run several days of parades. Mazatlan is in Sinaloa, which carries a travel advisory from which the city is explicitly excepted.

Planning around a festival

• Book months ahead for Day of the Dead, the Guelaguetza and Semana Santa.
• Confirm this year's dates for anything tied to Easter.
• Expect crowds, and expect pickpocketing where there are crowds.
• Remember that most of these are worship or commemoration for the people holding them. Ask before photographing, and stand where you are invited to stand.
• Check whether the place you are going is inside or outside an advisory area, because several of the best festivals are in states that carry one with an exception for that city.

Verify before you travel

Dates move, ticketing changes and events are occasionally relocated. Confirm with the state tourism office before booking around one.

Sources

• UNESCO World Heritage Centre: the inscription of the Historic Centre of Oaxaca and the Archaeological Site of Monte Alban in 1987 as a single property composed of two distinct sites, and the founding of the city as Antequera in 1529 on a checkerboard plan laid out by Alonso Garcia Bravo. Accessed 16 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Mexico safety and security: the requirement to carry the passport and entry stamp and the refusal of copies or photographs, the illegality of bringing in or selling vaping devices, robbery by unlicensed taxi drivers and the sitio and pre-paid airport alternatives, the Cancun taxi protests that have pulled visitors from ride hailing cars, theft and hijacking on buses and the case for first class services on toll roads, carjacking on the Pacific Highway, methanol in spirit drinks, low hotel balcony railings, the hurricane season from June to November and Hurricane Otis at Acapulco in 2023, and the LGBT+ legal position. Accessed 16 September 2026.