Why did UNESCO list Mexico's Day of the Dead?

What UNESCO recognised

UNESCO lists the celebration as the "Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead": proclaimed in 2003 and inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008. The listing describes a fusion of pre-Hispanic religious rites and Catholic feasts, timed to the end of the annual maize cycle, and a belief that the dead can bring prosperity or misfortune depending on how well the rituals are carried out.

• UNESCO inscribed the "Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead" (Mexico) on the Representative List in 2008; the list it belongs to was originally proclaimed in 2003.
• The festivity combines pre-Hispanic religious rites with Catholic feasts, and coincides with the end of the annual maize cultivation cycle.
• In the belief UNESCO describes, the dead can bring prosperity (such as an abundant maize harvest) or misfortune (illness, accidents, financial trouble) depending on how well the rituals are performed.

La UNESCO declara la fiesta Patrimonio de la Humanidad en 2008.

UNESCO declared the festival a World Heritage tradition in 2008.