Día de Muertos: A celebration of culture and love like no other
On November 7, 2026, the streets of Detroit Avenue will be covered with Hector Castellanos’ art, with participants flooding the streets to participate in the Skull and Skeletons Procession to celebrate Dia de Muertos.
By: Samantha Green
As the leaves turn colors and the air cools, all attention turns to Halloween. People are planning costumes, stocking up on candy and carefully decorating the perfect spooky house. Mere hours after, however, another holiday is lighting up.
Día de Muertos, a Latin American holiday, honors beloved family members who have passed into the afterlife. Many people associate this celebration with known stereotypes of Halloween, but Día de Muertos is a revelry of love, and an idea of comfort, not fright.
Though little is known by historians, it started as a celebration of the first harvest, which took place in late September to early October. Crops were given as an offering to Tonantzin, the Aztec name for Mother Earth.
They were also shared with ancestors who came to visit from the underworld. The arrival of Catholicism merged this holiday with All Saints and All Souls Day, helping shape the celebration as it is known today.
Award-winning artistic director Hector Castellanos Lana brought this tradition to the Cleveland community in 2005. Though hesitant, Castellanos knew the importance of this event.
Hector Castellanos Lana and Samantha Green.
“It’s a celebration that we all need to have because it is something very spiritual,” he said. “People share their beliefs and embrace each other.”
Year after year, the Cleveland Public Theatre aims to educate people on the real meaning of Día de Muertos. This will be the 22nd anniversary of the procession that, historically, takes place on the first Saturday in November. The theater starts prepping in mid-summer — though, Castellanos gets calls for altar considerations starting as early as December.
Over 600 participants were in the 2025 procession, with an estimated 2,500 people cycling throughout the event. Surprisingly, nearly 70% of the Día de Muertos audience is non-Latino.
People come from all over Cleveland, primarily the East Side and The Heights, but many students and families come from Columbus, Cincinnati, or Pennsylvania, and reach as far as New York. Even the hands that put this event together are international.
An artist compares the ceremony to her traditions in Poland. The artist who makes the beautiful graveyard banners? A friend from England, non-Latino, but in her hands, the cemetery becomes an original masterpiece.
To top it off, the procession stops for a dance performance at an Italian church that takes the time to put its own altar outside in the spirit of inclusivity and unity.
“So many cultures, so many communities coming together to uplift this very specific community…our lives are just so much richer when we can learn from each other,” The Cleveland Public Theatre explained.
Castellanos begins the celebration with an installation of ofrendas in the cemetery, where artists and families alike will create altars to honor their loved ones.
“We make a fake graveyard the day before, but when people come to pray, it looks very real,” he said.
Altars are adorned with traditional flowers, such as marigolds and calla lilies, food, photographs of lost loved ones and, most importantly, a glass of water.
“For them to come and visit us, it’s a long journey,” he explained. “So definitely they will be thirsty and they will be hungry, too.”
Samantha Angel, a journalism and criminology student at Cleveland State University, describes her family's altars.
“Behind every photograph, we place something. A perfume for my cousin, a beer for my grandpa; and it’s fun to say ‘let’s use this mug and look through our options.’” Angel said.
She and her family, like many others, sit around the night before and commemorate old stories and memories. Though death is naturally avoided and often scary, she says, this day is an exception.
Family unity through the passing down of legacies is what Día de Muertos is all about. Death, while frightening, can be beautiful, even in the eyes of children.
On Día de Muertos, look out into the cemetery to see children praying and singing songs, telling stories about their ancestors. Without the young, there will be no one to carry on the tradition, even here in Cleveland.
This year’s celebration will start at 11 a.m. and run until 10 p.m., with plenty to do. Dueto Maravilla, classical violinists, and Brazilian samba are just a few of the musical numbers that will be playing throughout the day. A mariachi band from Paynesville will perform during the parade. There will be two food trucks, Freaky Juice and Caribbean food, as well as 12 cart vendors.
“We try to stay away from commercialization, we don’t want to make money, [we just want to] spread our message,” Castellanos stated.
Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center will feature its dancers during the day. Another dance group, Danza Azteca Guedalupana, has participated for many years, but this year, things have changed.
“We are having a hard time inviting others,” he said. “Their leader was just sent back to Mexico. She lives here, and her citizenship was in transition, but now [they’ve] just canceled it.”
He says this fear has taken over, but they cannot let this stop them because the message of inclusivity, love and diversity is more important now than ever.
The most anticipated part of the day, and a tradition based specifically in Cleveland, kicks off midday: the Skulls and Skeletons Procession. Cultural costumes are created and worn by anyone wishing to participate.
“You see all these skeletons dancing, and people get so full of joy,” Castellanos said.
The procession lineup will begin at 2:30 p.m., and starts at 3:30 p.m., lasting one hour. Afterward, people are free to return to the event lot to continue the celebration. The entire event, including procession participation, is free and open to the public.
“Here, we welcome everyone. Not just Latinos, everybody,” he said.
