Celebrate Halloween the Mexican way

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Travel specialist Journey Latin America is offering horror-fans a real treat this Halloween with a tailor-made tour to Pátzcuaro in Western Mexico to take part in the city’s legendary ‘Day of the Dead’ celebrations.

Despite the somewhat morbid sounding name, Day of the Dead, or ‘Dia de los Muertos,’ is actually a joyous and extremely colourful occasion celebrated on the 1st and 2nd of November every year. Throughout the two-day festival, the whole of Mexico stops for a nationwide communion with the dead; a remembrance of loved ones and a celebration of the eternal cycle of life and death.

Day of the Dead is celebrated in spectacular fashion throughout the whole of Mexico, but nowhere more so then in Pátzcuaro in the Western state of Michoacán where offerings are made to ancestor’s souls through picnics and all-night, candle-lit vigils held at the graves of loved ones. By midnight on the 1st November the whole city will converge on local cemeteries to decorate the graves and chant to the deceased.

Although the cemeteries are seen to be the main centrepiece of the celebration, the centre of town is also alive with the festivities: all shops and houses are elaborately decorated with flowers and fruits from the regions and offerings of sweetmeats and papier-mâché skeletons give the area a real gothic feel. The festival culminates with local fisherman converging on Pátzcuaro Lake to light a candle for the deceased, while local men dance in the streets as a celebration of the reunion between the living and the dead.

Journey Latin America is offering the chance to visit the lakeside, colonial town of Pátzcuaro and the nearby island of Janitzio where the cemetery bells ring out all night long. A ten night trip to Mexico to see the Day of the Dead celebrations in Pátzcuaro starts from £1,902 per person based on two sharing and includes return flights with British Airways to Mexico City and first class accommodation in Mexico City, Morelia, Zihuatanejo and Pátzcuaro.

For a more traditional Halloween, Quito in Ecuador and Cusco in Peru both hold celebrations in the town’s main squares on Halloween night, where children dress up as witches and ancient Incas while music, food and fireworks accompany the festivities.

A ten-night itinerary taking in the highlights of Ecuador and including a two-night stay in Quito starts at £1,450 per person based on two sharing and excluding transatlantic flights. A 7-night break in Peru, including 3 nights in Cusco starts from £1,036 per person based on two sharing and excluding international flights.

Those wanting to carry the Halloween festivities right into the New Year can return to Mexico and book a trip to Vera Cruz in March 2009 for the Annual Witch Gathering, or Congreso de Brujos, where healers and witch doctors converge on the town of Catemaco to ply their trade. Prepare for an onslaught of magicians, witch doctors, wizards and witches who visit the lakeside town every March to offer remedies for all kinds of ailments. Hotels in Veracruz start from £33 per person per night based on two sharing.