Day of the Dead

Pat, William and I attended the Dia de los Muertos Festival in Mesa on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Wikipedia explains the holiday better than I ever could:

The Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos in Spanish) is a holiday celebrated mainly in Mexico and by people of Mexican heritage (and others) living in the United States and Canada. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and relatives who have died. The celebration occurs on the 1st and 2nd of November, in connection with the Catholic holy days of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day which take place on those days. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts.

There were public altars for local people to bring in candles and other remembrances of their friends and relatives, then there were altars inside the Arts Center that were done for a contest of famous and not-so-famous people. There were quite a few different performances going on during the day, a market where you could buy Day of the Dead figurines and other arts and crafts, William made his own sugar skull and then there were the four performers who had on masks and carried poles and scattered amongst the crowd creeping up on people and scaring them, much to my amusement. All in all it was a very interesting and fun day.