The Dia de los Muertos is celebrated throughout Mexico. This especially in the state of Michoacán and its capital, Morelia. Since I travelled to two places that are particularly known for their beauty on this holiday and wanted to continue on to Baja California afterwards, I made a stopover in Morelia. Firstly, it was on the way, and secondly, I wanted to spend a day there anyway.
In Janitzio and Tzintzuntzan, I mainly saw beautifully decorated graves and realised what this day means to Mexicans. I visited the cemeteries and saw the discrepancy between the touristy Día de los Muertos and the intimate Día de los Muertos. In Patzcuaro, on the other hand, there were more altars and sites set up to honour the dead. In Morelia, I got to know yet another side of the Día de los Muertos. Since Morelia is a – in comparison to the other places I went to for the Día de los Muertos – larger city and it would have been difficult to honour individual people here in the centre, the entire centre was decorated with orange flowers, fruit was laid out everywhere and many important places and large squares were decorated with artistic paintings made of seeds, flowers and other materials. Really impressive. And beautiful! I’ve never seen anything like it before and it must have been a lot of work! Really amazing. Of course, there were also a few Día de los Muertos figures and skulls in the city centre, as well as small performances. All in all, it was a really great experience and nice to see how differently the day is celebrated from place to place. Very similar everywhere, yet different.

Go or not? Definitely yes. Morelia has and shows completely different aspects of the Día de los Muertos than you see in Patzcuaro or Janitzio. Personally, I wouldn’t have wanted to miss my day trip to Morelia 😊