Guatemala's Day of the Dead tradition fills the sky with colorful kites

Day of the Dead is celebrated across the world

While almost all celebrations involve cemeteries and altars, many countries also have their own unique traditions, including Bolivia’s staircase-shaped bread to help lead souls to heaven, and Haiti’s voodoo-influenced rituals.

Marigolds are an iconic symbol of Day of the Dead

The native Mexican flower performs several functions in Day of the Dead celebrations. Its vibrance and unique scent help guide wandering souls home, and its cheerful color reminds celebrants that death can still be joyful.

Almost all Mexican citizens celebrate Day of the Dead

The average Mexican family spends more than $60 USD on celebration elements like flowers, candles, food, and decorations. The holiday also draws more than 2 million foreign tourists to join in the festivities.

Make these Aztec-inspired amaranth and honey skulls for Dia de los Muertos

On the Day of the Dead, ghosts enjoy earthly delights amid Mexican cemeteries. Baskets of sweet breads and tamales grace graves, while altars honoring the departed display hot chocolate and chicken legs. Hear from experts why this morbid day emphasizes the significance of offering foods loved by the dead. Intrigued? You can learn to make them yourself with recipes provided.

Aztec mythology informs the Day of the Dead

The ancient people believed the dead journeyed to Mictlán, the Land of the Dead. To get there, they had to travel for four years through nine underworld levels, with the final being occupied by Mictlantecuhtli, the Aztec god of death, and his wife Mictecacíhuatl.

Chicano artists shaped the celebration of Day of the Dead in the US

Beginning in the 1970s, Mexican-American artists have used Day of the Dead components like ofrendas and festivals to combine cultural identity with social justice movements, highlighting indigenous traditions to address issues like gang violence.

Day of the Dead poems skewer everyone, living or dead

The tradition of calaveras literarias, or satirical poems about death, dates back to the 20th century. They take aim at everyone, including deceased loved ones, politicians, family and friends.

Sugar skulls are more than a sweet snack

The colorful candy combines Indigenous traditions with European confectionery techniques. Its symbolization reminds celebrants that death can be “sweet.”

La Catrina is Day of the Dead’s unofficial symbol

The image of the skeleton in a feather hat, satirizing women who chased European fashion trends, first appeared in 1912 on broadsides printed by José Guadalupe Posada, a Mexican artist. Today, she is the holiday’s most recognizable symbol.

The film ‘Coco’ sparked global interest in the Day of the Dead

The holiday figures prominently in the 2017 Disney film, which inspired an uptick in Day of the Dead merchandise being carried by national chains like Target and Michaels, sold alongside Halloween merchandise.

The tradition of the graveyard picnic

This article from Eater shares a fresh perspective on eating amongst the dead. Writer Tiffany Leigh shares the cultural significance of picnicking in cemeteries during the Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb Sweeping Day, which is celebrated in Chinese culture. Her article explains how Qingming can be a tender and lighthearted event to remember the deceased and how that can differ from modern American attitudes toward death and cemeteries.

Firework-related celebrations include an annual summer celebration in El Salvador, where residents throw kerosene-soaked balls to commemorate a 1658 volcanic eruption

Another memorable tradition takes place in Vrontados, Greece, with people in two rival churches firing bottle rockets at each other's bell towers in an event known as the Rocket War. Yet another tradition occurs in Tainan City, Taiwan, fifteen days into the Chinese lunar calendar, with celebrants donning protective gear and attempting to get hit by fireworks—a tradition dating back to the late 1800s when residents asked the god of war for help with a raging cholera epidemic, with a similar display.

Athletes in Mexico are reviving a 3,000-year-old sacred sport

A modern team is working to revive Juego de Pelota, an ancient Mesoamerican team sport played by the Maya, Aztecs, and neighboring cultures. Once central to ritual and community life, the game was outlawed by Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century.

A Maya creation myth begins with dwarfs

In the Popol Vuh—a foundational Maya creation text from Guatemala—an early age is marked by dwarves gifted with great vision and intellect. Their hubris led to destruction by flood, after which humans were created from corn with deliberately limited sight.

Experience Maya culture through art—both ancient and modern

This gallery showcases how Maya culture endures through both ancient monuments and modern artistic expressions, tracing visual traditions from pre-Columbian carvings and murals to contemporary works created by Maya artists.

A Spanish New Year's Eve tradition is eating 12 grapes at midnight

When midnight hits, participants in Spain, as well as Mexico and some Latin American countries, are encouraged to eat a grape for each of the clock’s strikes. (We’re assuming they’ve got some nice grandfather clocks!) The tradition is intended to bring good luck in the new year. The idea is believed to have originated in the 1890s, but took off when Spanish grape farmers had a surplus harvest.

Watch the annual three-day revamp of the Q'eswachaka bridge

Rebuilt every year since the Inca empire, this bridge still is used today by locals who want to traverse the 120-foot-wide gorge that runs beneath it. This three-minute video shows just how much effort goes into its restoration.

High-altitude kites can perform airborne collection of energy from high-speed winds

Winds at high altitude are stronger and more consistent than those near Earth's surface, where natural and artificial barriers disrupt airflow. Kites pulled by the wind can extend a tether like a yo-yo, creating electricity in an attached ground generator.

Once a year, Bali goes completely silent

Every March, the Indonesian island of Bali halts all commerce, travel, and recreation for a day of silence called Nyepi. This cultural ritual purges the island of evil spirits like ego and greed.

The 2025 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade floats include Camp Snoopy, POPCITY, and more

Whether you want to see the floats in the parade or prefer to learn more about the balloons, performers, and more, this interactive website has it. Click on each of the visuals to see details about the float or balloon. The Beagle Scout Snoopy balloon, for instance, has a giant hat that is as long as 17 beagles lined up end to end.

Exploring bird skulls

Birds inspire us to fly—but what about bird skulls? This collection of various birds' preserved skulls offers a peculiar "bird's-eye" view. See the many surprising shapes of beaks and eyeholes, from mockingbirds to turkeys, in this fascinating visual collection.

How Guam became an island of snakes and spiders

The US territory of Guam has 40 times the number of spiders of nearby islands, and a voracious collection of snakes which has nearly emptied it of any native birds. Researchers took it upon themselves to count the species and determine what turned the island into such a haunt of arachnids and serpents, where walking into the woods can mean navigating endless layers of spider webs. Find out more here.

Picasso's 'Guernica' protested the bombing of a Basque village

By 1937, Picasso's fame and influence had already made him a legend. Yet an unprovoked war crime in Guernica, Spain that same year—where 25 bombers dropped 100,000 pounds of bombs and explosives on civilians—inspired one of his most moving works.

A quote by Lauren Bacall

"Imagination is the highest kite one can fly."

Pyrodrones combine fireworks with millisecond-accurate drone choreography

Drones are outfitted with fireworks and positioned using 3D software to ensure perfect timing and safe spacing during shows. A single GPS error during planning can ruin the show, as happened in 2024 when a drone crashed and injured a spectator due to programming failures.

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) generated controversy, raised concerns about ethics in photography, and eventually led to the photographer's death.

See the 25 of the best photos of auroras from around the world.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

The deadliest aspect of volcanic eruptions is often not lava, but pyroclastic flows—avalanches of ash, gas, and rock that can move more than half the speed of sound.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

Coral reefs get their colors from zooxanthellae—microorganisms that line corals' digestive tracts and provide them with sugars in exchange for a home within this protective tissue.

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.