Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Dia de Los Muertos/Halloween

I hope you all had a fantastic Halloween. As many of you know, it is by far my FAVORITE time of year. So I was a little sad that I wasn't in Vancouver to celebrate. Nonetheless, I dressed up Lucas in his costume and we carved a pumpkin together. Then we sat in the dark in mom's room and looked at the jack 'o lantern lit. Lucas loved that, but his fingers kept creeping towards his jack o lanters' tempting luminescent lights and well... you know...danger, danger. I'm sure it won't be the first Halloween to end in tears! I had bought candy just in case, but it was definitely a record low year at no trick or treaters! We did do a drive buy candy drop on the way home from picking up Rob at work though. There was a group of about ten or fifteen kids all dressed up for a party, and they were thrilled to have us drop some candy off! Who wouldn't be, right?!

It is heartening to see that most places in Mexico have not confused Halloween with the Day of the Dead, seeing as they fall on almost the same day and contain many of the same macabre images. Although the festivities here were nothing compared to what Rob and I saw in Oaxaca, we were pleased to be able to see an altar competition in the town square. The picture below shows one of the altars, this one done in sand. Lucas loved the lights and people, but it was rather late for him.

We also had the pleasure to have a visit from Millaray, from Mexico City. Any of you who don't remember, she is the student whom Mom hosted for almost three years. She was also one of my students. We had a fantastic visit which included a night out on the town for the ladies; margaritas, dancing, and mom pleading, "Let's just stay for one more set" at two in the morning. Whoohoo! Lucas is in love with Millaray and had her run off her feet within hours of arrival.

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