Day of the Dead festivities

There is just something about Day of the Dead art that fills my heart to the brim with pure bliss. I absolutely love color. Absolutely adore it. There is so much fun to be had with color...endless fun in fact and art based on Day of the Dead fully takes advantage of this! It takes me to my happy place and man when I'm there, I don't want to leave.

Day of the Dead is a beautiful day. Most people don't really understand it and view the skull based art as rather morbid when in fact Day of the Dead is a day to celebrate life! This special day is carved out for individuals and families to remember those that have passed away and to celebrate the life that they had on this Earth. The skulls represent those that have passed and are often colored in beautiful dress. Altars are also built to offer food and fun to those that have passed and are also again another way to celebrate their lives.

This year, I finally made it out to the Day of the Dead festivities in Mesa. I've always wanted to go to this festival and although we were tigger tired from halloween night fun, we dragged our butts out of bed and made it downtown Mesa.

Just look at the color! Ahhhh, I'm in heaven! You can lots of little altars for sale here as well as many skull based art. So beautiful

Paradise Community College artists were in the midst of creating a very large altar for the evening festivities.

This is one of the very large altars on display. This altar had a sign asking for names of those that had passed and a thought/prayer for them. We put Rich's Dad's name in this altar.

Teehee! This music made me smile and also made me do a little dance...

I've got to give it for these young teenagers. The traditional dance has some concoction of tap-dancing but there is a lot of twirling. And please note how the girl in yellow has braids that end in huge ribbons!

The festival was a bit smaller than I thought it would be but none the less, I was still in heaven. It's a beautiful reminder to enjoy life, celebrate life and to really remember those that are special to us that are needed up in Heaven.