Something planned on October 27, 2018? No? Then you should definitely keep Saturday free and travel to Mexico City. The James Bond Parade takes place here to celebrate Día de los muertos.

What is behind the Día de los Muertos?

The Día de los Muertos, in english Day of the Dead, is a colourful Mexican folk festival that is celebrated with family and friends in honour of the dead. According to the traditional belief, the souls of the deceased return to their relatives on the day of the dead to celebrate a happy reunion. The preparation time for the Dia de los Muertos begins in mid-October. The streets are decorated with orange cempasúchil (marigolds) and symbols of death, such as colourful skulls and skeletons that appear everywhere in shop windows, schools and restaurants.

What does James Bond have in common with the Day of the Dead?

In itself, James Bond has very little to do with this traditional holiday, but whoever saw the Bond film “Specter” with actor Daniel Craig can certainly sremember the beginning scene, where he was disguised as a skeleton and moving through a crowd of people celebrating in Mexico City. Thousands of people are dressed as La Catrina (colourful lady skeleton with a large hat) or as a skeleton and are dancing and celebrating in the street. The climax of the opening scene is where Bond fights a helicopter that is dangerously close to the heads of the crowd

The parade seen in the film, however, was only an invention of the filmmakers. There has never been such a huge parade in Mexico City for Day of the Dead. The complex filming of “Specter” took place in Mexico City in the spring 2015. You could hardly ask for a better tourism campaign than this scene staged at the beginning of the Bond film. The international interest in the film and in the “Carnival of the Skeletons” was so great that the Mexican government was ultimately forced to host such a parade on a yearly basis.

The first Día de los Muertos parade took place in October 2016. It began at the Angel de la Independencia statue and econtinued for 3.5 kilometers until the Zócalo, the huge main square in the centro historico. Here is where the helicopter circled the crowd in the Bond film.

Save the date! Book your trip to the Día de los Muertos in Mexico today.

We are happy to help you, just send an email to: info@buenos-dias-mexico.de.

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