VIDEO: Día de los Muertos Celebration Brings Color, Culture and Remembrance
BRONX — Marigolds, decorated skulls, and larger-than-life sculptures are bringing Mexico’s beloved Day of the Dead tradition to life at the New York Botanical Garden, where visitors can celebrate loved ones and reflect on the meaning of life and death.
The annual celebration features vibrant floral arrangements, traditional Mexican art, and a community ofrenda, or offering altar, where visitors can honor those they have lost.
For Richard Heredia, a recent visitor, the exhibition offered a chance to feel closer to his mother, who died a few years ago. Her birthday would have fallen on the day he visited the garden.
“I wanted to just be a little closer to her and wanted to check it out,” Heredia said. “For us, death isn’t so sad. It’s a celebration of life.”
The exhibition also gives visitors an opportunity to pause amid the demands of daily life and remember those who are no longer with them.
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Lizzette Mantilla, another visitor, said the celebration provides a meaningful opportunity to reflect on grief while keeping the memories of loved ones alive.
“Death has its grief phase. But there’s also an opportunity to stop and remember and keep them always with us,” Mantilla said. “I appreciate that there is a time on the calendar where we can just take a moment to slow down and remember those who are not with us.”
A centerpiece of the exhibition is a multi-tiered community ofrenda, a traditional altar created to honor the dead. Visitors are invited to participate by bringing photographs or other meaningful items to remember their loved ones.
Helena LaPorte-Burns, director of public programming at the New York Botanical Garden, said offerings such as food and photographs are important parts of the tradition.
Because of the garden’s landscape, visitors cannot leave food or light candles at the altar. Instead, the installation incorporates symbolic representations of those traditional offerings.
The exhibition also features marigolds, decorated skulls, larger-than-life alebrijes — brightly colored Mexican folk-art sculptures of fantastical creatures — and a flower-adorned La Catrina, an iconic figure associated with Día de los Muertos.
Beyond the installations, the New York Botanical Garden is hosting weekend festivities celebrating Mexican culture through music, folk dancing and hands-on workshops.
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The programming culminates in a Día de los Muertos Parade on Nov. 1, ahead of the final day of the exhibition on Nov. 2.
Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a Mexican tradition that honors deceased family members and friends. Celebrated primarily on Nov. 1 and 2, the holiday emphasizes remembrance, family connections, and the enduring bonds between the living and the dead.
The New York Botanical Garden’s celebration invites visitors to explore those traditions while creating space to remember and honor the people who remain part of their lives.
The exhibition is on view at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx through Nov. 2.