Something is being celebrated in Mexico almost every week, between village patron-saint fiestas and festivals of international scale. These are the ones worth building a trip around, in calendar order.
First half of the year
- Carnival, February or March. Veracruz holds the oldest and most musical one, with son jarocho and danzón; Mazatlán the biggest on the Pacific. Five days before Ash Wednesday.
- Equinox at Chichén Itzá, 20 or 21 March. Kukulkán's shadow descends the staircase of El Castillo. Spectacular, and shared with tens of thousands of people; some prefer Dzibilchaltún, where the sun passes clean through a temple.
- Holy Week, March or April. The processions in Taxco are the most intense in the country, with penitents. It is also the week all of Mexico travels: book months ahead or stay where you are.
- Feria Nacional de San Marcos, Aguascalientes, April and May. Three weeks, the largest fair in the country, with charreada, palenque and concerts.
Summer
- Guelaguetza, Oaxaca, the two Mondays after 16 July. Mexico's most important indigenous festival: delegations from the state's eight regions bring their dress, music and dances down to an auditorium on the Fortín hill. Tickets sell months ahead and city accommodation runs out. Around it is a full week of free street events.
- Wine harvest festival, Valle de Guadalupe, August. The Baja vendimia, with tastings at the wineries.
Autumn, the big season
- Independence Night, 15 September. At eleven exactly the president gives the Grito from the balcony of the National Palace to a packed Zócalo, and every town square in the country repeats the scene with its mayor. A military parade follows on the 16th. The most national night of the year.
- Festival Internacional Cervantino, Guanajuato, October. Latin America's largest performing-arts festival: three weeks of theatre, music and dance through a city of alleyways, with guest countries each edition.
- Day of the Dead, 31 October to 2 November. Oaxaca, Pátzcuaro and Mixquic are where it is lived most intensely. Book three or four months ahead; Oaxaca sells out entirely.
- Night of the Radishes, Oaxaca, 23 December. An 1897 tradition in which whole scenes are carved from giant radishes and displayed in the zócalo for a few hours. Absurd, charming, and with queues of several hours.
December
- Guadalupe, 12 December: millions of pilgrims at the Basilica in Mexico City
- Posadas, 16 to 24 December: neighbourhood processions with piñatas and punch, nationwide
- Christmas and New Year: the most expensive and most crowded weeks on the coasts
Practical notes
- Book genuinely far ahead: three or four months for Day of the Dead in Oaxaca, two for the Cervantino, and from January for Holy Week on the coast
- Accommodation prices double or triple on those dates
- Village patron-saint fiestas appear in no guidebook and are often better than the big festivals: ask at the local market wherever you are
- Most festivals have a free street programme alongside the ticketed one. At the Guelaguetza the free part is half the interest
- 16 September, 2 November and 12 December are public holidays with banks and offices closed