Happy Voting!

The day after Halloween is All Souls' Day (Dia de los Muertos), and around Tucson it's celebrated the following Sunday with the All Souls' Procession. This is a huge celebration in Tucson, what with it's Mexican heritage, and we missed it the past two years (grad school, I hate you!). But this year, a friend who lives downtown, walking distance from the procession route, invited us over to watch, eat, and drink.

It was amazing. It's basically an all human-powered parade of people dressed as their own interpretation of the holiday. People get ridiculously creative and elaborate. If we still live here at this time next year, we'll have four costumes to make instead of two. Because that's one of the coolest things: anyone can join in the procession anywhere along the route.

It all ends at a big cauldron of fire after about a two-mile walk. The cauldron burns all the offerings people have made ahead of time representing their hopes and wishes for dead loved ones.

Chewy went with us and behaved beautifully. There are all kinds of musical instruments played throughout the mobs of people. Including huge, loud, deep, vibrate-your-soul drums. Chewy was alert, but didn't seem nervous. We carried him when the crowd got to thick. It was pretty intense at the cauldron. I think he was too exhausted by that time to care about the people/noise/fire/etc.
Look here for some much better pictures than mine.
There were lots of funny political groups, too. And a couple who decorated their kids' wagon as a casket and was pulling the kids around in it. The whole family dressed as skeletons, zombies, and what have you, of course. I thought it was really funny, but I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that I thought it was funny. ;)
Anyway, it was great. I wish every town had this tradition.