For months, Puerto Vallarta and the State of Jalisco have made clear that Día de Muertos events would be canceled and encouraged citizens not to gather on the Malecon for holiday celebrations due to COVID-19, so yesterday’s last-minute installation of Catrinas and Altars along the Malecon took people by joyful surprise.
On October 31 the Puerto Vallarta Malecon was decorated in thousands of colors, combining the Mexican traditions of All Saints and Day of the Dead with hundreds of people who dressed up as witches, ghosts, and demons, commemorating the Celtic tradition of Halloween.
The exhibition of catrinas and altars along the Malecon brought hundreds of tourists to the location for an opportunity to take their souvenir photos while the people of Puerto Vallarta walked the Malecon showing off their Halloween costumes.
Due to the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, during 2020, the exhibition of the catrinas and altars of the dead had to be suspended, returning by surprise this year, from Sunday until November 2, the date that is commemorated throughout Mexico on the Day of the Dead.
Despite the fact that the Government of the state of Jalisco had invited the population not to commemorate Halloween due to the fact that a healthy distance was not kept, a good number of young Mexicans and foreigners gathered in the location as the city began to install the display along the Malecon.
This week, Jalisco was lowered to ‘Green’ in the COVID-19 warning system, the lowest level of COVID-19 contagion on the federal warning system, resulting in the city launching celebration activities for Día de Muertos that were canceled in September.
