Mexico City Day of the Dead Parade Inspired by James Bond Movie Celebrates 10th Anniversary

(Central News Agency, Mexico City, comprehensive foreign news report on the 31st) Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, held its annual Day of the Dead parade today, which is expected to attract more than 500,000 domestic and foreign tourists. This festival has a history of hundreds of years in Mexico, but the parade was born in 2015 because of the James Bond movie series.

Agence France-Presse reported that Mexico's Day of the Dead (Day of the Dead) is a fusion of local pre-Columbian traditions and Christian All Saints' Day customs. On this day, families remember their deceased relatives and friends. People will go to cemeteries to pay homage and display the deceased's favorite food or other items.

In the movie "Spectre" released in 2015, the protagonist, the fictional British intelligence agent code-named 007, James Bond (James Bond), shuttles through the center of Mexico City in a parade composed of giant puppets and people dressed as the dead. After the movie became a global hit, then-mayor Miguel Angel Mancera decided to turn this fictional Day of the Dead parade into reality.

Some of the giant dolls that appeared in the "007: The Evil Dead" parade also appeared in the first Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City in 2016. Mansera, who served as mayor from 2012 to 2018, recalled that the event quickly became very popular. "People started asking me: 'What about the parade? When will it be held?'"

"This is now a very, very big event that I'm very proud of," he said.

This year coincides with the 10th anniversary of the Day of the Dead parade. An 11-story statue of Catrina was erected in the Zocalo, the main square in Mexico City. Catrina is a graceful female skeleton image in Mexico.

Today, many giant skeleton puppets, floats and performers with feathered faces and masks are flooding into the streets of Mexico City. There are also musicians and stunt performers in the parade, and the city is filled with a carnival atmosphere.