Follow the Flower Traffic to the Cemeteries on 1 November
On the morning of 1 November, the pavements around Valencia's municipal cemeteries fill with people carrying gladioli and chrysanthemums, and the buses run heavier than usual toward the gates. All Saints' Day is a fixed Spanish national holiday, never moved, and the city's seven municipal cemeteries — General, Cabanyal, Campanar, Grau, Benimámet, Massarrojos and El Palmar — are the centre of it. The council extends opening hours around the holiday, running continuously from early morning to late afternoon including weekends, with the exact dates and times published each year in a municipal decree. That decree also typically sets a deadline for placing floral tributes on the morning of 1 November, so if you plan to lay flowers, check it before you go.
EMT boosts bus service to the cemeteries in the days beforehand. Driving is difficult on 1 November itself, especially in the morning — take the bus. In the villages around the city you may still find the old animetes custom: a candle lit for each deceased family member on the night of 1 November and kept burning until noon on 2 November.
Eat Your Way Through the Pastry Shops, Mid-October to 1 November
This is the season when Valencian bakeries and pastry shops turn out the sweets that define the holiday. Go early in the day and buy by weight.
- Buñuelos de viento — hollow fried dough balls rolled in sugar, the most traditional sweet of the Comunitat Valenciana.
- Huesos de santo — rolled marzipan filled with egg yolk, shaped like bones.
- Panellets — marzipan balls studded with pine nuts, Catalan in origin and now standard in Valencian pastry shops.
- Roast chestnuts, sold from street braziers.
You'll find all of it at neighbourhood bakeries and pastry shops from mid-October through 1 November, and municipal market stalls sell the sweets by weight. Bars and restaurants operate normally on the holiday itself — only the shops close.
Spend 31 October at the Marxa Zombi and After Dark
Halloween has been part of city life here for more than twenty years, and it belongs mostly to the night. The Marxa Zombi de València, a zombie-costume solidarity march running since 2010, sets off from Plaza del Ayuntamiento on a Saturday in October; makeup is done at the Tapinería market, and the exact date is announced a few weeks ahead. Clubs and bars host costume parties, shopping centres and escape rooms run horror mazes, and there are occasional horror screenings — the programme changes yearly, so check the events calendar in the days before.
For something tamer, children's trick-or-treating runs in shopping centres on the afternoon of 31 October (sometimes into 1 November), usually free and without booking. Paid guided tours of the historic centre on legends and darker history run each season. In the weeks around Halloween, Bioparc decorates enclosures with pumpkins and prepares special "menus" for the animals as environmental enrichment, in a format that varies year to year.
Plan Around the Holiday Closures — and the Long Weekend
On 1 November most small shops and much of large retail close; supermarket hours vary by chain and location, so check the day before. Public transport runs on holiday frequencies, reinforced toward the cemeteries. Schools are shut, and many families take a long weekend, which thickens road traffic out of the city on the previous afternoon. Some municipal museums, including the Museu Faller and Casa Museo Benlliure, are usually open on public holidays with free admission and reduced morning-only hours — verify before you set out.
Use the City as a Base for the Villages
The animetes candle custom is more common in the villages than in the city, so if you want to see it, plan a day trip out of Valencia rather than staying in the centre. Within the city, the cemetery circuit itself makes a good half-day: pick one or two of the seven — General, Cabanyal, Campanar, Grau, Benimámet, Massarrojos, El Palmar — and go by EMT bus in the morning, when the flower traffic is at its height.
Start with the calendar: fix 1 November, then work backwards to the Saturday of the Marxa Zombi and forward from mid-October, when the buñuelos appear in the windows. Check the municipal decree for cemetery hours and the tribute deadline, confirm museum openings, and let the pastry shops and the flower queues set your pace.