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day of the dead

Día de los Muertos: Midnight Fiesta

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A VIP Paranormal Celebration of the Veil’s Thinning
Presented by P3: Paula’s Paranormal Project & Lucky Star Cantina

📅 Friday, October 31, 2025
🕙 10:00 PM – 1:00 AM
📍 Lucky Star Cantina | 219 S 2nd St, Miamisburg, OH

🔞 Must be 21+ | Closed, ticketed event

💵 $25 per person — Alcohol & Midnight Flight Countdown are optional add-ons

This VIP extended Hallows’ Eve experience carries us into the magic of Día de los Muertos as we honor the spirits of Lucky Star Cantina and the haunted history of Miamisburg.

Your ticket includes:

🎶 Live music for part of the evening

🥂 Private VIP lounge with snacks provided

👻 Exclusive time with P3 on the spookiest night of the year

🎭 Costume contest with prizes for the spookiest, most spirited, and best Día de los Muertos look

🕛 Midnight Flight Countdown – optional add-on, not included in ticket price

🔮 Evening highlights:

Haunted tales of Miamisburg and Lucky Star’s ghostly legends as we count down to midnight

Group spirit box session at the stroke of midnight — you never know who (or what) will come through

🍹 Alcoholic beverages available for purchase — not included in ticket price.

🎟️ Limited VIP tickets available — once they’re gone, they’re gone!

Dayton Dia De Muertos Parade and Celebration

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Dayton Dia De Muertos (Day of the Dead) Parade and Celebration

Dia de Muertos is a unique and colorful holiday observed across Mexico, the southwestern United States, Latin America and right here in Dayton, Ohio. During Dia De Muertos people reminisce on the lives of loved ones who have died by creating and sharing ofrendas (Day of the Dead alters), food, sugar skulls, papel picado banners, processions, calaveras (skulls) music, traditional dance while wearing sugar skull painted faces and bright costumes.

The Dayton parade and celebration will include all of these traditional Mexican traditions with some unique Gem City twists.

Expect more than a thousand people to participate in this free and family friendly event. October 21st 2 – 8 PM.

 

  • 2 pm Gather for the Pre-Parade activities at the Yellow Cab 700 E. 4th Street Dayton, OH 45402. There will be storytelling, games, Rev. Cool of WYSO spinning Latin music, great food, expert face painting and the NEW Dayton Dia De Muertos T-shirt for sale.

 

  • 4 pm The Dayton Dia De Muertos Parade departs the Yellow Cab and loops through the Oregon District in Downtown Dayton to trek down the middle of E. Fifth Street and back to the Yellow Cab.

The celebration begins when the parade returns to the Yellow Cab Tavern:   

  • Authentic Mexican folkloric Dia De Muertos dancers from ORGULLO MEXICANO
  • Traditional rancheros from the father and daughter singing team of LESLIE PEREZ AND THE ALACRAN DE DURANGO
  • Dayton’s own famed and mysterious original Lucha mask-wearing rockers TEAM VOID.  
  • REV. COOL of WYSO’s Around the Fringe show will MC the event and DJ high energy traditional and not so tradition Latin dance beats between sets and to end up the evening.

Traditional homemade Mexican food will be provided by the families of St. Mary’s Church on Xenia Ave in Dayton. El Meson’s food truck will also be there.

Traditional Dia De Muertos ofrendas (alters) will also be on display.

Dayton Dia De Muertos t-shirts and stickers will be available.

Day of The Dead Mask & Puppet Classes

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Zoot Theatre Company is offering some special classes to help you celebrate Día de los Muertos, Day of the Dead. This is the Mexican holiday honoring the dearly departed on November 1st.  The most familiar symbols, skeletons and skulls, are incorporated into the celebrations and festivals. The skeletons and skulls are usually portrayed enjoying life, decorated and displayed in charming situations.

 

Day of the Dead: Mask Making Class 

(It will take two Saturdays to complete this class)

October 6 & 13, 2018

 9:30 am – 11:30 am

14 year olds to Adults

$80 (price includes materials)

Class Description: ¡Feliz Día de los Meurtos! Celebrate Day of the Dead with us at Zoot Theatre Company by making your own mask. In this two session class, participants will create a mask in the spirit of Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebration. A skull mask will be made using paper mache and plaster fabric strips on a mask template provided. Colorful paints will bring life to the skull masks!

Registration Deadline: September 29, 2018

 

Day of the Dead: Paper Bunraku Puppet Class

October 20, 2018 

9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

8 to 13 year olds

$35 (price includes materials)

Class Description: Celebrate Day of the Dead with art! Come join us at Zoot where you will discover what the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead is and learn about Japanese inspired puppetry: Bunraku. With the help of skilled Zoot puppet artists, children will build their own Day of the Dead Skeleton paper puppet based on the Bunraku style of puppetry. Finally, they will learn how to manipulate their puppet with two other people and solo. Learn what it takes to bring a puppet to life!

Please Remember:  This is   a working arts studio, art is messy, please wear appropriate clothes.

The Zoot Theatre Company

840 Germantown St, Dayton, Ohio 45402
(937) 875-9668

Dia de los Muertos Dayton!

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elegant skeletonAre you one of the 300+ people that made our first El Dia de los Muertos Dayton celebration a huge success last year? We’re doing it again on November 1st 2013!
Dia de los Muertos is a special day celebrated throughout Latin America, on which people remember loved ones who have died. The Dayton celebration will be in the Mexican tradition of celebrating with bright colors, imagery of calaveras (skulls) and more, but recognizes all Day of the Dead and All Saint’s Day traditions. This is a free and family-friendly event.

 

The centerpiece of this celebration is the month-long exhibit at Missing Peace Art Space, commemorating work that local artists have shared, in honor of their loved ones. The exhibit runs through December 1st at 234 Dutoit St. The gallery hosts many exhibits throughout the year, lifting up the human family and our yearning for peace!

 

Dia de los Muertos Dayton is the opening event for this exhibit, a community celebration of size, distinguished by a community parade through the Oregon District! This year, we are proud t be sponsored by Welcome Dayton, an Initiative of the City of Dayton’s Human Relations Council. Look for their float in the parade!

 

Our new event partner, Synergy Incubators, has jumped in big time, hosting the pre-parade party with Zombie Dogz, El Meson Mobile  and other food sunflower galtrucks, selling sustenance for your soul. Special beer tappings from Cavalier Distribuitn include Zombie Dust and Zombie Killer.   It is First Friday after all!

 

While you enjoy delicious food and brew, get your face painted for the parade! We might even have a few masks and t-shirts for sale! Plan on picking up one of Gracie’s cookies! They are works of art. And delicious!!!

The parade will line up on 5th St. in front of Synergy Incubators, stepping off promptly at 6pm! All are invited to join the parade!!! Lots of music, color, dancing skeletons, bicycles, motorcycles, floats and more!

 

The parade will end at the Missing Peace Art Space at 6:45pm where there will be more food for sale, performances in the street and the beautiful Community Ofrienda exhibit inside the gallery!

 

Huge thanks to all who donated online to make this event happen!!! What great community support!!! Special thanks to the Dia de los Muertos Committee for their hard work in planning this event!!! This event is proudly sponsored by: Welcome Dayton, Missing Peace Art Space, The Compassionary and Synergy Incubators.

 

Learn more:

 

bride-groomThe Day of the Dead is a Mexican tradition dating from Pre-Hispanic times. The Ancient Aztecs honor their Dead loved ones along with the goddess Mictecacihuatl. With the arrival of the Spaniards and Catholicism into Mexico, the ancient tradition became a syncretic form of celebrating All Saints Day.  Celebrating the Day of the Dead has transcended religion and has become a cultural tradition that honors the dualities of life and death, happiness and sorrow, day and night.

Indigenous Mexican homes are decorated with altars ornamented with flowers, photos of departed love ones, candles, and a variety of objects that our love ones enjoyed in life. The idea is to invite them to join us in a celebration of their life. The ancient Mexicans believed that for one day, the souls of our ancestors would come and visit and celebrate with us.

The Missing Peace Art Space will display a variety of altars with typical Mexican altars decorated by a multicultural array of Daytonians. Each altar will display items that tell a story about a love one and their special relationship with those who honors them.

In addition, the walls of the gallery will display artwork featuring artists Magda Bowen. Born in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico, artist Magda Bowen discovered a passion for painting  “Calaveras”.  “La Calavera Catrina” has become a staple of Mexican Day of the Dead celebration. Popularized by Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada, the Catrina is the skeleton of an upper class woman. The Catrina or Calaca soon gained iconic status as a symbol of Mexican folk art. Inspired by José Guadalupe Posada, these paintings are festive skeleton characters with bright colored costumes representing a cheerful afterlife. They are properly dressed for a celebration. With their elaborate costumes, they joyfully parade with dignity leaving the physical world and embracing the afterlife. Death is not the end, but a new beginning.

 

For more information, contact:

Gabriela Pickett at Missing Peace Art Space, 369-1373

Jean Berry at The Compassionary, 369-8532!

 

 

Day of the Dead Celebration, Mural Unveiling, Holiday Gift Buying at November First Friday

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Pick up holiday items such as these festive ornaments at DVAC’s Art to Buy gift gallery, opening this First Friday.

Downtown’s next free First Friday art hop will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2.

Cityfolk’s Culture Builds Community program will host a Day of the Dead Community Ofrenda Celebration beginning at 6 p.m. with a parade in the Oregon District. The parade will begin on Wyandot Avenue, near Hauer Music, and will continue down East Fifth Street. The community is invited to participate in the parade, led by artist and musician Michael Bashaw and students from Chaminade-Julienne High School and Stivers School for the Arts. The parade will end around 6:30 p.m. at Missing Peace Art Space, 234 S. Dutoit St., just off East Fifth Street near Stivers School for the Arts. A reception will run until 10 p.m. at the art gallery with food provided by Taqueria Mixteca. The reception will feature an exhibit of community art created for the occasion.

Fair trade retail store Peace on Fifth will host its grand opening in its new location at 510 E. Fifth St., where it will share space with art studio and shop Gallery 510 Fine Art. Peace on Fifth will take over part of Gallery 510’s art gallery space at the front of the store, and the businesses will continue to operate as two separate stores coexisting in the same space. For First Friday, Peace on Fifth will host a fair trade food tasting in the store.

Peace on Fifth, a sucessful Pop Up Shop from the first round of Activated Spaces’ program, will move into a new space in Gallery 510 Fine Art and will host a grand opening during November First Friday.

With the holidays just around the corner, visit downtown retail stores and art galleries to pick up a one-of-a-kind gift.  The Dayton Visual Arts Center and CADC both will host openings of their holiday gift galleries, featuring unique gift items made by local artisans, and K12 Gallery for Young People/TEJAS will host a handmade arts and crafts event. Several other art galleries will host show openings, and retail stores will feature items for the holiday season.

A new series of murals along East Third Street will be unveiled, with a meet-and-greet reception with the artists held from 6 to 8 p.m. at the nearby studio of Hamilton Dixon, 811 E. Third St. This album of photos shows the mural project in progress. Look for the murals on East Third between Keowee and Webster streets.

A complete list of what downtown businesses have on tap for First Friday is available on the DDP website.

First Friday is presented by the Downtown Dayton Partnership with support from the Oregon District Business Association, the Ohio Arts Council and WYSO-FM 91.3. The Downtown Dayton Partnership’s website has a complete list of downtown’s arts and cultural amenities, as well as a dining guide, parking map and much more. Download the Find It Downtown mobile search tool for smartphones at http://mobile.downtowndayton.org.