Cozumel's Day of the Dead festival returns to the Museo de la Isla on October 23, free, with a tribute to Michoacán

Cozumel's Day of the Dead festival is coming back to the Museo de la Isla for a second year, and this time it runs for three nights instead of two. "Tradición, luz y reencuentro" opens on Friday, October 23 and continues on the 24th and 25th from 7:30 p.m., with a monumental altar, video mapping and a catrina contest, and every activity is free.

The state government announced the dates on October 5. The festival was presented by Governor Mara Lezama and Juanita Alonso Marrufo, director general of the Fundación de Parques y Museos de Cozumel, which organized last year's first edition. The program lists exhibitions, a monumental altar, the lighting of the museum's mural, video mapping, a procession, artistic performances, a popular dance, theater and a catrina contest, with local artists and performers taking part.

A tribute to Michoacán

Last year's edition honored Oaxaca. This year it is Michoacán, and the festival's image is the monarch butterfly, which in Purépecha belief represents the return of souls. The celebration itself is rooted in Hanal Pixán, the Maya "food of the souls," which honors the dead with altars, prayers and paths of light.

What happened last year

The first edition, held on October 25 and 26, 2025, was dedicated to Oaxaca. It opened with the "arrival of souls" by the Canoa Maya Cozumel group, included exhibitions of alebrijes and murals and a folk delegation from Oaxaca, and on the second night held a catrina contest in children's and open categories and a staging of the Maya legend of Ixquic before closing with the "farewell of souls" on the Malecón in front of the museum. Entry was free. The state says that first year drew more than 2,000 people.

What is still to come

The organizers have given the dates, the start time, the venue and the outline of the program, but not yet the order of events night by night, the categories or rules for this year's catrina contest, or who is performing. The attendance figure for 2025 is the state's own count. Last year the detailed program was published on October 9, about two weeks before the festival.

For now, the dates are the useful part. The festival falls on the weekend before Hanal Pixán itself, October 31 to November 2, so a visit does not have to choose between them. For other recent news from the island, see our reports on the new undersea power cable and the rejected fourth cruise pier, or browse homes and land on our Cozumel location page.

Sources: Coordinación General de Comunicación, Gobierno de Quintana Roo, October 5, 2026 and October 9, 2025; Quintana Roo Hoy, October 5, 2026; El Heraldo de México Quintana Roo, October 27, 2025; Clase Turista, September 19, 2026. Main image: "Museo de la Isla de Cozumel," by David Stanley, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.