Mexican holidays and celebrations everyone talks about

Real conversations follow the calendar. In Mexico, the dates that get everyone talking are Día de Muertos (November 1 and 2), the Noche del Grito (September 15), Las Posadas (December 16 to 24), Día de Reyes (January 6) and Día de las Madres, always on May 10. Around them sit dozens of smaller seasons and rituals that fill the year with food, music and small talk.

Below is the Mexican year in order, with what happens on each date and phrases you'd hear in a conversation. It's the calendar the Pollyfriends friends in Mexico City live through and talk about.

Winter: January and February

Año Nuevo (January 1). Leftover pozole and resolutions. The classic question: ¡Feliz año! ¿Y tus propósitos? (Happy new year! And your resolutions?)

Día de Reyes (January 6). Offices and families share a rosca de Reyes, a ring-shaped sweet bread with tiny baby figurines hidden inside. Whoever gets one owes everybody tamales a month later. The line everyone waits for: ¡Te salió el muñeco! (You got the baby!)

Día de la Candelaria (February 2). A religious date. Outside church, the talk is about who has to pay for the tamales. Street tamal vendors like Doña Martha sell twice as many.

Día del Amor y la Amistad (February 14). Valentine's Day, but explicitly for love and friendship: flowers, balloons and chocolate for partners and friends alike.

Spring: March to May

Natalicio de Benito Juárez (third Monday of March). A civic holiday that makes for a long weekend. In everyday conversation, it's mostly about the trip.

Equinoccio de primavera (around March 21). Crowds dressed in white climb the pyramids of Teotihuacan to greet the sun.

Jacaranda season (March and early April). The city's avenues turn purple. People say it's the best time of year for coffee at a sidewalk table: ¡Ya florearon las jacarandas! (The jacarandas are in bloom!)

Semana Santa (the week before Easter Sunday). A religious week and also a school vacation. Mexico City empties out, and families make capirotada, a bread pudding.

Mango season (April and May). Manila mangoes on a stick, with chili powder and lime. Market vendors call out: ¡Pásele, güerita, pruebe el mango! (Come on in, try the mango!)

Día del Niño (April 30). Children's Day, with school parties and candy from the corner store.

Día de las Madres (May 10). Always on the 10th, whatever the weekday. Serenades, mariachis and restaurants packed to the door.

Día del Maestro (May 15). Students bring flowers and cake to their teachers.

Summer: June to August

Rainy season (June to October). In Mexico City the rain arrives almost on schedule in the late afternoon. Anyone with laundry on the roof runs: Ya se soltó el aguacero. (Here comes the downpour.)

Día del Padre (third Sunday of June). Carne asada on the rooftop and soccer on TV.

Summer vacation (mid-July to late August). Kids at home and trips to the beach or to the family's hometown.

Guelaguetza (two Mondays after July 16). The great festival of the peoples of Oaxaca, with dances from each region on the Cerro del Fortín. People from Oaxaca living in the capital get homesick for tlayudas.

Back to school (late August). Supply lists, uniforms and lines at the stationery shop: ¿Tiene cartulina verde? ¡Es para mañana! (Do you have green poster board? It's due tomorrow!)

Día del Abuelo (August 28). Grandparents' Day, with a family lunch.

Mexico City Marathon (a Sunday in late August). Streets close before dawn, and the crowd shouts ¡Ánimo, ya casi! (Keep going, almost there!)

Autumn: September to November

Chiles en nogada season (August and September). Poblano peppers stuffed with meat and fruit, covered in walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds, in the colors of the flag. Purists say eating them in any other month is a sin.

Noche del Grito (September 15). The eve of Independence Day. At night, people gather for pozole, little paper flags and neighborhood parties, and the famous shout of ¡Viva México!

Monarch butterfly season (November to March). Millions of monarchs arrive in the mountain forests of Michoacán after flying from Canada and the United States.

Día de Muertos (November 1 and 2). The most famous Mexican celebration abroad. Families set up ofrendas, altars with photos, marigolds, candles and the favorite foods of loved ones who have died. There's pan de muerto, papel picado and calaveritas literarias, short funny poems that imagine death coming for a friend. It's a day of mourning and of affection at the same time. Toño, a subtitle editor with a dry sense of humor, writes a calaverita for each of his friends every year.

El Buen Fin (the weekend before November 20). Mexico's national sale weekend, with stores full and phone deals everywhere.

December

Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe (December 12). A major religious date, with pilgrims walking to the Basilica. The whole city's traffic changes, and people warn each other about it.

Las Posadas (December 16 to 24). Nine nights of gatherings with piñatas and ponche, a hot fruit punch. Many offices have their own posada, which Toño calls "a work meeting with a piñata".

Nochebuena (December 24). Christmas Eve is the big night, with a late dinner of dishes like bacalao or mole.

Navidad (December 25). The day of the recalentado: last night's dinner, reheated.

Día de los Santos Inocentes (December 28). Mexico's day for pranks, a bit like April Fools'. If you lend something that day, you may not get it back, and the prankster sings Inocente palomita que te dejaste engañar (Innocent little dove, you got fooled).

Nochevieja (December 31). Twelve grapes at midnight, one wish per grape. Some people walk around the block with an empty suitcase to bring a year of travel.

Phrases for any celebration

• ¡Felices fiestas! (Happy holidays!)
• ¿Qué vas a hacer en el puente? (What are you doing on the long weekend?)
• ¿Vas a salir de viaje? (Are you going away?)
• ¡Provecho! (Enjoy your meal!), said to anyone eating.
• ¡Salud! (Cheers!)

The calendar inside the conversation

In Pollyfriends, the friends who live in Mexico are AI characters who live through these dates. Doña Cuca, a grandmother in Puebla, says chiles en nogada outside August and September are a sin; Vale, a barista in Narvarte, says jacaranda season is the best time for coffee on the sidewalk; and Dani takes her suitcase around the block every New Year's Eve.

If you'd like to hear what each of them is doing for the next celebration, meet the Spanish-speaking friends.