Mixquic Day of the Dead: What Happens in San Andrés Mixquic, Day by Day

San Andrés Mixquic is one of Tláhuac's seven original settlements, close to the border with the State of Mexico. The city's page on Mixquic describes it as an island settlement that was part of the chinampa system of the former Lake Chalco. The name comes from the Nahuatl word *mizquitl*, and the city gives its meaning as "place of mezquites."

The town's history runs deep. Its pre-Hispanic past includes Chichimeca, Chalca and Cuitlahuaca peoples, and it was later conquered by Xochimilco and then by Tenochtitlan. The Augustinians built the present church and monastery over an earlier ceremonial center. The city speaks of a worldview with more than 500 years of history in Mixquic, while older local history, as the Tláhuac borough tells it, places the island settlement there by the 11th or 12th century.

That long history is part of why the town's Día de Muertos is so closely tied to its cemetery, its church and its families. The celebration described here belongs to Mixquic. Other towns keep other dates and other customs, and our story on Day of the Dead by region follows several of them.

Mixquic's season starts more than a month before the candles. On September 29 comes the Llamado a las Ánimas, when families clean the graves of their relatives and invite the dead to return.

October 31 belongs to the children. The 2026 city guide calls it "El Susurro de los Angelitos," the whisper of the little angels, and describes the children's souls being welcomed with white petals, sweets, fruit, chocolate, toys, copal and candles. The Tláhuac monograph adds an older detail: the church bells ring at noon to announce that the children have arrived. Our story on Día de los Angelitos is a fuller account of how different communities remember children who died.

November 1 brings the adults. Families welcome them with orange cempasúchil petals and the foods they liked best, a moment the 2026 guide names "El gran reencuentro," the great reunion. The monograph lays out the rhythm of that day: a morning breakfast for the children's souls, a midday change as the children leave and the adults arrive, and later prayers for the forgotten souls, the ones who have no one to remember them.

November 2 is the last day. Families share a final breakfast with their dead, prepare food for them to take on the way back, and close the cycle in the cemetery with La Alumbrada.

One of Mixquic's own customs is the Campanero. Groups go from house to house ringing small bells, pray for the dead at each home and receive food from the family's ofrenda in return. It is an exchange: prayers for the household's dead, and a share of what was set out for them.

The two local records give the timing in different ways. The Tláhuac monograph describes children carrying small bells and visiting homes, with the custom beginning around 7 p.m. The city's Ofrenda Infinita publication describes the Campanero on November 1. If you want to know when the groups will be out in a particular year, local residents are the people to ask.

Every home altar in Mixquic belongs to a family, and what goes on it depends on who is being remembered. Local and official descriptions, gathered in the Tláhuac monograph and the city's 2025 Día de Muertos guide, mention water, salt, candles or cirios (tall church candles), white flowers for the children and cempasúchil for the adults. There is copal or incense, fruit, sweets and toys, and the favorite dishes and drinks of the person remembered.

The 2025 guide gives examples of those foods for the adults: mole, tamales, pulque or beer. If the person remembered liked beer, beer goes on the altar. That is the point of the altar, a meal laid for someone the family knew.

The smoke on many of these altars comes from copal, a tree resin burned on charcoal. Our story on copal on the Día de Muertos ofrenda explains what it is and how families use it, and the orange flowers have a story of their own in cempasúchil, the marigold of the dead. If you would like to set up a home altar yourself, see how to make an ofrenda.

On the night of November 2, the cemetery beside the church of San Andrés Apóstol becomes the center of the town. Families have already cleaned and decorated their relatives' graves with candles, flowers, incense and food. As darkness falls, the electric lights are dimmed or switched off, and thousands of candles light the graves.

The candles have a purpose. Local explanations describe them as guiding the returning souls and keeping them company as they leave again. The bells traditionally announce the moment to come to the cemetery, and families stay for hours, praying, telling stories and sharing food beside the graves.

Residents interviewed by anthropologist Verónica Zamora Jiménez for an INAH journal article describe La Alumbrada as remembrance and coexistence with the dead, not simply a spectacle. The cemetery itself reflects that. The 2025 city guide describes it as organized around family spaces reused across generations, so a single plot can hold several generations of one family. On this night, the families are keeping company with their own grandparents, parents and children.

For another lakeside town that spends a night with its dead by candlelight, read about the Night of the Dead on Janitzio, in Michoacán.

Visitors come to Mixquic for these days, and the Mexico City government publishes guidance for them in its 2026 guide and on its venue pages.

The 2026 guide lists activities in Mixquic from October 31 to November 2, 2026, with La Alumbrada on the night of November 2. It advises arriving hours early because of traffic. In the cemetery, it asks visitors to request permission before taking photographs, to stay quiet during La Alumbrada and never to sit on or step over graves.

The city's venue page gives the town-center address as Plaza Juárez, Los Reyes, Tláhuac, San Andrés Mixquic, 13610 CDMX. The usual route by public transport is Metro Line 12 to the Tláhuac station, then local transport or a taxi; the venue page puts the taxi ride from Metro Tláhuac at a little under 40 minutes. The same page says that most outside visitors cannot enter the cemetery after 10 p.m. on November 2. That limit applies to visitors; families may have their own arrangements.

Plans and access can change from year to year, so confirm current transport and access with the Mexico City or Tláhuac authorities before you travel.

Mixquic has more to see than the cemetery. The Museo Andrés Quintana Roo de Mixquic opened in 1992, and its collection began with archaeological objects donated by local researcher Socorro Bernal Roque. According to the city's museum page, it now holds 279 artifacts from the area, among them objects associated with the Toltec and Teotihuacan cultures, a Chac Mool, clay and stone stamps, a cylindrical serpent and a pre-Hispanic calendar. The museum also has a public library and a cybercenter. The city lists its hours as Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at Avenida Independencia esquina Perú, San Miguel, Tláhuac, 13640 CDMX.

For food, the Mercado Mixquic stands at Canal Seco and 20 de Noviembre, about five minutes on foot from the town center. The city's listing describes it as open all year, with seasonal local foods, and a 2017 study by the UAM counted about 101 vendors there. It is a good place to eat regional food between visits to the church and the cemetery.

A few practical answers for anyone planning to be in Mixquic this year.

Mixquic is one town's way of keeping these days. For the wider tradition, start with our guide to Día de Muertos, and for how the customs change from place to place, read Day of the Dead by region. The children's day has its own story in Día de los Angelitos, and if you are setting up an altar at home, how to make an ofrenda and our story on copal cover the steps and the smoke.

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