Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-27966940-20170107223114/@comment-26397825-20170215024245

Mmmm. All Hallows Eve and Dia de Los Muertos are similar thematicaly but different culturally. The Day of the Dead is about honouring and remembering those deceased, as I'm pretty sure that they believe that if you aren't remembered after you die you pretty much go to the boring, cold afterlife where you dwell lost forever as opposed to the fun afterlife where your family is. Or so I have been led to believe.

All Hallows Eve is when they believed the walls between our realm and the realm of the spirits are thinnest, and they used to dress up as spirits and demons to avoid being taken away from our realm by evil spirits. Also a good time for attempting to communicate with the dead according to superstitions. It's a modern development that has turned Halloween into the candy-fueled funfest it is today, which is a bit more similar to Dia de Los Muertos.

So while they both have Death themes, they are very different in how they treat the day culturally.