Mérida readies ten days of Festival de las Ánimas, with more than 1,000 souls on the Paseo and video mapping in three barrios

Mérida will hold ten days of Festival de las Ánimas from October 24 to November 2, with more than 30 free activities across the city and a procession on October 30 expected to carry more than 1,000 ánimas and close to 300 altars along its route. The program, presented by the city in late September, is less a single event than a calendar of named places. And the part of it that is new this year is light: video mapping projected onto three of Mérida's historic barrios.

The festival is the city's own Día de Muertos program, and its dates say so. It opens on October 24 and closes on November 2, the day the observance ends in Mexico. It is staged in specific places rather than in one venue. The Cementerio General is the starting point for the largest of the events. The Arco de San Juan, the Parque de la Ermita and Calle 64 A are named as lighting points. The Plaza Grande, the square at the center of the city, carries the monumental altar. And the mapping goes to three barrios: San Sebastián, San Juan and La Ermita.

Mayor Cecilia Patrón Laviada presented the 2026 edition, titled "Recuerdos de corazón," in late September. The city's press bulletin on it leaves little doubt about the scale being aimed at. "El corazón de Mérida latirá fuerte del 24 de octubre al 2 de noviembre con el Festival de las Ánimas 2026," it reads — Mérida's heart will beat hard from October 24 to November 2. The same bulletin names what has been added for this year: "San Juan, La Ermita y San Sebastián se llenarán de videomappings." San Juan, La Ermita and San Sebastián will fill with video mapping. Alongside the mapping the city lists longer routes at the Cementerio General and in Xcunyá, and giant figures placed along the procession route. More than 30 of the activities are free.

Luces del Siglo reported the presentation on September 27 and carried the numbers for the procession itself. "En esta edición participarán más de mil ánimas y se colocarán cerca de 300 altares a lo largo del derrotero," the paper quoted — in this edition more than a thousand ánimas will take part, and close to 300 altars will be set out along the route. Ánimas means souls; the Paseo takes its name from them. A thousand of them on one evening, with 300 altars laid out for the walk past, is the largest single item in the ten days.

The ten days, as the city set them out

October 24 opens the festival with Ánimas Iluminadas, a simultaneous lighting at four points: the Arco de San Juan, the Cementerio General, the Parque de la Ermita and Calle 64 A. On October 25 the Altar Monumental opens in the Plaza Grande.

The procession comes on October 30. The Paseo de las Ánimas leaves the Cementerio General at 6 in the evening for the Parque de San Juan, and it is the event the 1,000-ánimas figure belongs to. October 31 carries the Desfile de Catrinas, the parade of catrinas — the dressed skeleton figures of Día de Muertos. On November 1 the festival moves out of the city: Ánimas en Dzibilchaltún takes place at the archaeological site, also at 6 in the evening, according to Luces del Siglo. The ten days close on November 2.

The bulletin this article draws on does not attach dates to the video mapping in San Sebastián, San Juan and La Ermita, or to the giant figures along the route. Both are listed among what is new for 2026 rather than against a specific evening, so a visitor planning around them would need to check the city's own listing closer to the time.

What this program does and does not tell you

Everything above comes from two places: the city's own bulletin announcing the festival, and one newspaper's report of the presentation. The dates, the venues, the times and the counts are the organizers' figures rather than independently verified ones, and a program published weeks before an event can still move. Times and venues in particular are worth re-checking against the city's listing as October 24 approaches. The bulletin itself carries no visible publication date in the feed it was read from, which is why this article says the festival was presented in late September rather than naming a day.

Nor does the announcement say how the mapping will be produced, who is making it, or what any of the ten days will cost to stage. It says where things will be. That is enough to know the 2026 edition is a larger undertaking than the one before it, since the city presents the mapping, the longer routes and the giant figures as additions, but not enough to know how any of it will look on the night.

Mérida is not on the Caribbean coast, and its civic calendar is not built around visitors. That a ten-day festival should carry more than 30 free activities, spread across named places in the city and out to an archaeological site, is consistent with that. What has been published is a program rather than a set of promises about how the ten days will feel, and the mapping in San Sebastián, San Juan and La Ermita is presented as new for this year, so there is no earlier edition to judge it against.

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Sources: Ayuntamiento de Mérida, press bulletin 12614, "Mérida se prepara para vivir el Festival de las Ánimas 2026 Recuerdos de corazón, honrar sus raíces y vestirse de tradición; Cecilia Patrón," read in the council's official press RSS feed on October 2, 2026 — the feed carries no publication date and the item sits between bulletins of about September 26 and 28, which is why the presentation is dated here to late September. Luces del Siglo, Mar y Sol Chablé, September 27, 2026, for the count of more than 1,000 ánimas and about 300 altars along the route, and for the 6 pm start at Dzibilchaltún on November 1. All quotes are TLAP's translations from the Spanish.