Interpretation of Día de Muertos in the movie Coco

Adopting the analytical tools of cultural conceptualizations in Cultural Linguistics, this study examines cultural schemas of Día de Muertos, a Mexican celebration day of the deceased. It holds that Día de Muertos can be interpreted as event schemas for cultural reconstruction, family reunion and interpersonal bond reinforcement. This distinct cultural phenomenon is fully depicted in the movie Coco through multimodal resources of linguistic choices, colors, images and music, which presents audience a distinct perspective of understanding death in Mexican culture. It concludes that the analytical tools of Cultural Linguistics are effective in investigating cultural phenomenon in films.