theknockturnal.com: Forget the summer heat forecast—fall has officially arrived at Disneyland Resort. This year, the season brings two distinctly different celebrations together, with Halloween Time taking over the resort through Oct. 31 and Plaza de la Familia honoring the traditions and spirit of Día de los Muertos through Nov. 2.
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The Plaza de Familias at Disneyland is one of the most interesting things I've heard about Disney doing recently, although I’m not the most up to date on all of the Disney News. Día de los Muertos is such a beautiful and important holiday, and I was lucky enough to grow up using the holiday to remember loved ones. A lot of my peers, however, had never heard of Día de los Muertos until we talked about it in school Spanish class in second or third grade. Younger kids grew up with the movie Coco, which is centered around Día de los Muertos, so many of them have at least heard of the holiday, but the Plaza de Familias is such a cool way for kids to learn about the importance, culture, and traditions of a holiday they may not celebrate at home. However, this coin has two sides. Although learning and appreciating other cultures is great for kids, turning a holiday into a theme park attraction raises some questions about the commercialization of Día de los Muertos. Without proper education, many of the children visiting the Plaza de Familias may see the holiday as just another halloween party, except this party has more color and calaveras for decoration. I don’t think this exhibit is inherently bad, in fact I think it has great potential, but that it has to be well thought out and well executed to prevent the attraction from causing harm instead of good.
It’s always so cool to see how amusement parks manage to implement seasonal transformations on such a large scale while effectively combining two very distinct contrasting cultural climates. Mixing together this light-hearted and playful energy of Halloween with the legacy of Día de los Muertos is such a smart way to make the fall season offerings even more interesting and accessible for all. From the entertainment and logistical operation perspective, the process of overlay implementation in both amusement parks requires a massive amount of work. Changing the rides into seasonal ones implies not only the high level of technical efficiency but also a smart timing of the process. The construction of the huge gingerbread cake for the 25th anniversary of the Haunted Mansion with the moving kinetic elements is such a good example for the attention to detail within these seasonal projects, I remember watching a Disney special when I was in middle school about the halloween changeover that really sparked my interests in the quick turnaround process as a whole.
I was very refreshed to hear that Disneyland has incorporated Día de los Muertos into their annual Halloween celebration. Before Covid my family and I visited Walt Disney World’s Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, and although we had an amazing time there, Disney World did not celebrate Día de los Muertos in this way. Coco is one of my favorite Pixar Films, and as a young child it introduced me to this Mexican holiday. I think I was drawn to it because of its vibrant setting, and although I don’t celebrate Día de los Muertos personally, I would love to experience its traditions. This holiday represents love, family, and community, all things that most Disney goers openly embrace. I think that a Día de los Muertos celebration is a wonderful addition to the Halloween festivities in Disneyland and hope that the success of this event pushes Disney World to follow suit and expand their celebrations.
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