On the morning of Dia de los Muertos, my mother (visit arranged to correspond with this fascinating holiday) and I went down the main cemetery in town. We had been told that it would be buzzing with activity, but I don’t think we were prepared for how active it was. It seemed like nearly every grave was being attending to by family which included cleaning and decorating with marigolds, streamers, and a wide variety of other decorations.

The atmosphere of this cemetery leaned much more towards jubilant than somber. The live music was a big part of this. Quite a few bands were wandering around the cemetery either looking for or just moving between gigs. They varied in quality and volume, and although we tried to stay closer to the good mariachi band, we always ended up near the loudest 20-piece brass band. Although I was clearly out-of-place with my big camera, I didn’t want to be rude, so I tried to take pictures very discreetly, especially of the bands playing graveside.

Around noon, we went just outside the gates for lunch and popsicles. When we went back in afterwards I thought that I would take a few more crowd shots and do some people-watching, but it was just too crowded. So, we headed on with our day, which turned out very well because then we went to see all the Catrinas at the contests (and now 2 posts ago).

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