Día de los Muertos lotería

Día de los Muertos lotería starts with a deck you choose yourself. This page gives you 60 bilingual carta ideas and the meaning behind the holiday's symbols. Unlike bingo cards, lotería tablas have no free space. Nothing here is ready-made: you make your own lotería deck for a Day of the Dead evening.

Día de Muertos is not Halloween

Día de Muertos is not the same as Halloween, the Smithsonian notes. It's a time to honor family members who have died and to celebrate who they were. Pumpkins, witches and black cats belong to Halloween, so leave them out of this deck.

UNESCO inscribed Mexico's Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead on its Representative List in 2008. It had been proclaimed in 2003. Families welcome the brief return of the dead with petals, candles and offerings, from late October to early November.

What the symbols mean

The ofrenda is a temporary altar where families honor loved ones with pictures of the deceased. Mexico's Indigenous peoples institute (INPI) explains its pieces: water eases the spirits' thirst after a long journey, and salt purifies. Candle flames guide the spirits home.

• Cempasúchil. Families lay a trail of fragrant orange marigold petals so the spirits can find their way home from the graveyard, the Smithsonian explains.
• Papel picado. In the Smithsonian's account, the cut-paper banners stand for wind, one of the four elements on every ofrenda.
• Pan de muerto. It's a round sweet bread. The crossed strips on top are the bones, and the small ball is the skull, says Mexico's ISSSTE.
• La Catrina. She began as José Guadalupe Posada's satirical print "La Calavera Garbancera." Diego Rivera named and dressed her in his Alameda mural, which he painted in 1947.
• La Mariposa Monarca. Monarch butterflies are believed to hold the spirits of the departed. The Smithsonian ties this to the first monarchs reaching Mexico each fall on November 1.

Where lotería fits

Lotería is a much-loved Mexican picture game. Where a bingo board has numbers, its boards have pictures, including a calavera (skull), as the Library of Congress explains. Lotería isn't among the holiday customs UNESCO describes. A themed deck is simply a respectful way to share the season's symbols.

Some people call it Day of the Dead bingo, or Día de los Muertos bingo. Our traditional deck includes La Calavera (Skull) and La Muerte (Death), so a few classic cartas already fit the night. Mexico's INPI even published a printable Día de Muertos lotería to teach children about the ofrenda. Picture tablas let non-readers play too, at a family table or in a Spanish class.

Make your own Día de Muertos lotería deck

Pick 20 to 54 cartas from the ideas on this page, or write your own. Mix angles: a few ofrenda objects, some flowers and food, and a handful of classic cartas.

You can add a short verso to each carta for the cantor to read, up to 240 characters. Then choose 3×3 or 4×4 tablas. For your Day of the Dead lotería cards, the generator asks for original illustrations, never imitations of the commercial deck art.

Words-only lotería cards are free to print, as many as you like. Your first illustrated set is free to preview in full. To print it, the illustrated PDF takes an Event pass ($4.99 once, per set) or a Pro plan. Start your Día de Muertos deck.