Día de los Muertos

     I had been looking forward to spending Día de los muertos in México since the day I took the job here. When I heard that there are no celebrations in Torreón for Día de los muertos, I was extremely disappointed. However, I ended up having a great time over the weekend and seeing a lot of what Day of the Dead is all about.

     The school acknowledged the day on Thursday, the 1st of November. The 2nd of November was a day off for teachers. On Thursday, every teacher in secundaria had their students make an altar in the gymnasium, and prizes were given out for the best altars. They were very elaborate with flowers, papel picado, candles, pictures, sand, food, and other little trinkets to remember the person to whom the altar was dedicated. In kinder, we also made an altar. Each class was in charge of contributing something different. My kids made papel picado and brought pan de muerto. The kids from maternal sang a song about the day, and the teacher talked about the celebration with the kids. Our altar was for Walt Disney. After the presentation, all of the kids ate pan de muerto and orange juice.

     Other than the altars at the schools, there was very little mention of día de los muertos around the town. A few places built altars, but there were no parties, parades, or festivals of any sort and no one went to the cemeteries because it is way too dangerous. On the other hand, Halloween was a huge event. Kids were screaming at the door all night long, "Queremos Halloween! Queremos Halloween!" There was a Halloween party at the mall and several of the kids at school had parties at their homes as well. It was much more celebrated than Day of the Dead.

     On Friday (the actual celebration of Día de los muertos) I went to Zacatecas with two of my friends. Zacatecas is a much older city and it is located father south of Torreón. As soon as we got off the bus, it was obvious what day it was. There were people walking around the streets with their faces painted like skeletons, papel picado covered the streets, and their were altars everywhere around town. After we checked into our hotel, which was located right downtown, we went shopping. We found lots of beautiful calaveras and Catrina figurines. While we were walking, kids were going into shops chanting something about día de los muertos asking for candy - similar to Halloween. That night, there was a huge parade. The floats were beautiful, each dedicated to something different. It was fascinating! After the parade, their was street entertainment and contests for calaveras, altars, and costumes. Late into the night there were people in the streets partying and celebrating. The newspaper in the morning showed pictures of music and celebrations in the cemetery that were going on all day long. There was also a special bullfight for the day.

One of the floats in the parade - death!

Another one of the floats - she was followed by a group of girls in black singing about her death

This was one of the simpler floats with beautiful papel picado

They were dressed up for the celebration and let us take a picture with them - so cool!

     The rest of our trip in Zacatecas was a lot of fun. We were all out tourists and went sight seeing, shopping for souvenirs and Christmas gifts, visited a mine, and took a ride up the teleférico to see the city from a high hillside. At night, we went to a discoteca deep in the mine, which was a great experience. Overall, it was the most fun weekend I have had since I've been here. Even though I spent my entire paycheck, it was worth every peso.