Best Day of the Dead festivals

Mexico – Day of the Dead leads with an ELO of 1,365, ahead of Transylvania – Vampire Festival (1,306) and Hawaii – The Haunted Lagoon (1,295). Ranked over 2,250 duels between 13 contenders, last updated August 25, 2026.

Discover death & Halloween celebrations around the world: Mexico, Ireland, Haiti, China… Vote for the fest you dream of experiencing!

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.