Join the catrina parade in Lavapiés
Madrid's Mexican community marks Día de Muertos every year on November 1 and 2, and the centre of gravity is La Tabacalera in Lavapiés. The former tobacco factory hosts the main programme: a craft market, food stalls, mariachis, contests for the best altar to the dead, and a catrina parade through the surrounding streets. The Mexican Cultural Institute and various municipal cultural centres add their own activities. The specific line-up changes each year and is typically published in mid-October, so check the programme before you commit to a day.
Cemeteries and flowers on the first of November
All Saints' Day is a national public holiday, and the defining custom is simple and moving: families visit cemeteries and lay flowers on their graves. Go to a Madrid cemetery on November 1 and you will see the city at its most unhurried — flower sellers massed at the gates, chrysanthemums in every arm. In 2026 the calendar works in your favour. November 1 falls on a Sunday, so the Community of Madrid moves the All Saints' holiday to Monday, November 2, which coincides with All Souls' Day and gives the city a long weekend from Saturday October 31 through Monday November 2. Confirm the official regional work calendar before you book travel around it.
Eat the sweets that exist only now
Late October and early November bring a pastry case you won't find at any other time of year, and the buying is the sightseeing. Look for:
- Huesos de santo — marzipan tubes about a finger thick, named for their bone-like beige colour after cooking and syrup-dipping; traditionally filled with egg-yolk cream, now also chocolate, jam, coconut or banana.
- Buñuelos de viento — fried doughnuts, optionally filled with cream, chocolate or whipped cream; documented before the 17th century, when a cook at Philip II's court described their preparation. Tradition holds that eating one frees a soul from purgatory, which is as good a reason as any.
- Panellets — Catalan almond, potato, sugar and pine-nut sweets sold in Catalan bakeries in the days before the holiday, traditionally eaten with a glass of muscatel.
- Roasted chestnuts, sold across the city through the autumn.
Wherever you are staying, ask at the nearest pastelería and bakery counter — the sweets are seasonal, not souvenir-shop stock.
Catch a Don Juan Tenorio
It was until recently traditional to stage José Zorrilla's play Don Juan Tenorio on All Saints' Day, and it is still performed in some cities and towns. In Madrid, watch the theatre listings in the weeks before November for a production near you. Pair it with a walk through a cemetery earlier in the day and you have the holiday as Spaniards have long observed it: remembrance in the morning, the ghost story after dark.
Take the long weekend out of town
The holiday is a national one, and if you have the long weekend from October 31 to November 2, a day trip puts you inside the regional customs. Across Spain, castañadas and magostos — chestnut-roasting celebrations — are held in Galicia, Cantabria, Catalonia, Aragon, Asturias, Andalusia and Castile and León, with chestnuts served roasted or worked into sweets. In Cocentaina (Alicante), the All Saints' Fair has run since 1346 and is described as Spain's second-oldest agricultural fair. Cádiz holds its "Tosantos" on the eve of All Saints' Day, when municipal markets have held open days and dressed-up product displays since the 19th century — a commercial carnival, in the local telling. Any of these makes a memorable extension of a Madrid stay.
Start with the calendar: pencil in Saturday October 31 to Monday November 2, 2026, then watch for the La Tabacalera programme in mid-October. Book a room in or near Lavapiés, and you can walk from the catrina parade to a plate of huesos de santo in the same afternoon.