52 Altars Will Fill Mérida’s Plaza Grande for Hanal Pixán

Rows of altars dressed with candles, flowers, family photos, and plates of regional food will fill Mérida’s Plaza Grande on Tuesday morning, when Yucatán’s annual state altar showcase returns for Hanal Pixán.

The Muestra Estatal de Altares de Finados 2026, presented under the theme “Tradición viva del pueblo maya,” or “A living tradition of the Maya people,” opens at 10 a.m. with 52 altars. Organizers said 36 state and federal agencies, the state Congress, and representatives of 18 municipalities will take part. Gov. Joaquín Díaz Mena is expected to lead the event.

The state Secretariat of Culture and the Arts, known as Sedeculta, and the Institute for the Development of Maya Culture of the State of Yucatán, or Indemaya, announced the details at a press conference this week.

Culture Secretary Patricia Martín Briceño said Janal Pixán remains a living tradition because families and communities keep handing down its practices from one generation to the next. Each altar, she said, reflects the community that built it, from the meaning of its elements and the food placed on it to the way that town remembers its dead.

Indemaya Director General José Feliciano Moo y Can said the showcase lets each municipality share its own stories, dishes, and knowledge, and brings that heritage closer to children, teenagers, and visitors. Keeping these customs alive, he said, honors the ancestors and gives younger generations a stronger sense of belonging.

What Hanal Pixán is

Hanal Pixán (alternately Janal Pixán) means “food of the souls” in Maya. It is Yucatán’s version of Mexico’s Day of the Dead, and its center is the home altar, set up to welcome back the spirits of loved ones with the things they enjoyed in life.

A traditional altar usually holds flowers, candles, photographs, a green cross, sweets, and pib, also called mucbipollo. That is a large tamale of corn dough filled with chicken and pork and baked in an earth oven. The first day is set aside for children who have died, followed by adults. Many families close the observance with a visit to the cemetery on Nov. 2.

Most of these altars stay inside private homes. The Plaza Grande exhibit gives residents and visitors a rare chance to see, in one place, how the customs change from town to town.

A smaller lineup this year

This year’s showcase is smaller than the 2025 edition. At last year’s showcase, more than 80 altars filled the square, with 60 municipalities and over 20 state institutions taking part. The announcement did not say why fewer municipalities are participating in 2026.

Sedeculta said its Janal Pixán program will also include stage performances, panel discussions, workshops, and themed tours in other parts of the state.

The state exhibit is separate from the City of Mérida’s Festival de las Ánimas, which has its own calendar of events. The city’s public buses are running extended bus hours and adjusted routes to serve the festival.

Both agencies invited Yucatecan families and visitors to walk among the altars and spend the morning with a tradition built around memory and the people who are gone.

Fast Facts

• What: Muestra Estatal de Altares de Finados 2026
• When: Tuesday, Oct. 27, 10 a.m.
• Where: Plaza Grande, Centro, Mérida
• Altars: 52
• Participants: 36 agencies, the state Congress, and 18 municipalities
• Organizers: Sedeculta and Indemaya
• Who can attend: Families and visitors are invited

With reporting from La Jornada Maya and Por Esto!