Días de los Muertos at Fairyland

By C.J. Hirschfield

Halloween is more than just one night at the nation’s theme and amusement parks: it’s an entire season. Starting even before Labor Day in some places, Halloween festivities – including special experiences that usually require separate admission – allow parks to extend their typical summer season and to keep earning money well into the fall. As a result, Halloween is now huge business at parks.

At Fairyland? Well, we offer Jack o’Lantern Jamboree the weekend before Halloween – October 27 and 28 this year. No extra charge, half off for members, with tons of treat giveaways and special events. We also “theme out” parts of the park with special designs.

Last year, for the first time, we created a Días de los Muertos environment in our Alice in Wonderland Tunnel. It worked so well for us that Fairyland’s director of art and restoration, Shannon Taylor, is bringing it back this year.

The White Rabbit in front of the Alice in Wonderland Tunnel wearing a Dias de los Muertos mask

Pixar’s 2017 animated hit, Coco, brought greater visibility to the Days of the Dead, the Mexican multi-day holiday during which family and friends gather to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died, and to support them on their spiritual journey. That’s one reason Shannon thought the theme would be a good match for our sweet, “more delightful than frightful” Halloween event.

But is a theme that deals with death appropriate for kids?

“Definitely!” says Shannon.

It’s a family holiday, she explains, and “a really positive way to remember and acknowledge loss in the most beautiful, sincere way.” She believes that Fairyland is a sweet and kind space to do that. 

Our display offers an explanation of the holiday, so even families who don’t celebrate it can open a dialogue about lost loved ones in a space that couldn’t be more safe, positive and colorful.

A Dias de los Muertos tableau outside the Alice in Wonderland Tunnel

Shannon and the rest of Team Fairyland feel it’s important to be representative of, and welcoming to, the diverse community we serve at the park. For us, Jamboree is an opportunity to continue the conversation about inclusivity.

For Shannon, it’s also personal. She lost friends in the December 2016 Ghost Ship fire, and she annually celebrates Días de los Muertos with members of her community. She says the celebration gives her a particular sense of peace.

Fairyland’s Days of the Dead shrine is constructed with advice from friends of Mexican heritage, in a way that’s culturally competent. We shopped at the Corazón del Pueblo store on International Blvd. and 48^th Ave. for the colorful papél picado tissue paper flags that lead the way through the tunnel, and for other items for the shrine. But there are distinctly Fairyland touches as well: figs, oranges and grapes from the park’s organic gardens, and special masks worn by our White Rabbit and other Alice characters.

Last year, we placed notecards and pens near the altar for people to honor and remember loved ones. More than 200 were created by our guests.

Dias de los Muertos shrine inside the Alice in Wonderland Tunnel

The response to our 2017 Días de los Muertos display was so overwhelmingly positive that we’re thinking of making it a regular part of our Jack o’Lantern Jamboree for years to come.

But unlike at many other theme parks—all of which we love—this special Halloween experience will not cost you extra. In fact, it may give you and your family more than you expected.

Jack o’Lantern Jamboree takes place October 27 and 28 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets available at the entrance: $10 general, $5 Fairyland members.

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C.J. Hirschfield has served for 16 years as executive director of Children's Fairyland, where she is charged with the overall operation of the nation's oldest storybook theme park.