is Day of the Dead similar to Halloween?

[mclines]

We Americans celebrate Halloween the last few days of October and it seems like Mexico has a similar event - Day of the Dead - will it be fair to say it's the same thing? what's the difference?

[Danny]

The short answer will be yes. We typically celebrate Halloween, while in Mexico they celebrate what they called "Dia de los Muertos" Day of the Dead from Nov 1 to Nov 3.

The Day of the Dead is also a happy celebration and when the souls of the dearly departed return home to the world of the living.

Just like Halloween, the Day of the Day event is full of life and entertainment. You'll see many statues, toys and trinkets of miniature skeletons and Day of the Day masks everywhere, and the famous "pulque" drink whcih is a fermented drink made from cactus.

[mitraveler]

Good question. Danny did a nice job of answering, but I'll throw in my two cents. Cultures all around the world have holidays that mark the connection between this world and the next. China has several festivals dedicated to their dearly departed ancestors.

The Celtics, the source of our Halloween traditions, for some part, celebrated Samhain, which marked the transition from the light part of the year to the dark. October 31 was the beginning of the festival and the day of the year where the connections between the seen and the unseen world were the greatest.

The Mexican festival also sees the bonds between the living and the dead the strongest at this time.

[RobertKelly]

every country on earth celebrates their own traditional Day of the Dead as Mitraveler pointed out. People in Japan celebrate the Obon, which a two-day Buddhist celebration where the Japanese pray for the souls of their ancestors.

Halloween is meant to be the way for the US to celebrate their dead, but it has been so heavily commercialized that it's lost some of its tradition. I think the most significant difference between the Day of the Dead and Halloween is that there isn’t a pumpkin or costume to be found on this day! People just go to cemeteries to decorate their beloveds’ tombs.

[allenparker]

Day of the Dead is also called as "Soul's Day". This day is celebrated to remember the friends and family members who died.