1. November 2009 - London

In honor of November 1, there was a Dia de los Muertos festival at the British Museum. My apologies for the fuzzy photos, I'm not sure what happened.

There was wonderful music and traditional dancing, complete with whirling skirts and tapping feet. The band played one song after another, as the crowds sang along (in Spanish, of course). They tried to leave the stage about three times after their allotted time had passed, but had to retake the stage with encore numbers to shouts of "Otra! Otra!".

This little girl wore a tiny traditional pink dress, and had her face painted as a skull. Wierdly cute, but also a little disturbing. But then again, most of the kids who were running around had skeletal smiles painted on their faces, or held a decorated grinning skull mask in front of their faces.

The male dancers were great, completely synchronized and enthusiastic–they even jubilantly shouted and yelled as they danced, to energize the crowd.

The dancing was so graceful, yet completely controlled, as the moves adhered to a strict pattern.

There was a festival procession, which came down the stairs in the main hall of the British Museum and proceeded all the way around the center building. The dancing skeletons, each with their faces elaborately made-up, came first.

Whirling and tumbling, to music played by the band, they come down the staircase.

There were dancers with huge headpieces, which were supposed to be fruit? flowers? Bright neon, the wierd headpieces stood out against their white dresses and full skirts.

There was a huge skeletal puppet, in bright orange and other colors, which towered above the rest of the procession.

A puppet burst out from a coffin that was carried, to dance along with the rest of the procession.

The skeleton dancers were my favorite, however. This is really the only clear shot I managed to take, thanks to my (dying?) camera.

A detail shot of the great skeleton in the procession.

Here is the procession winding away, around the great hall in the British Museum.

This elaborate setup was done in the most wonderfully bright colors, complete with sugar skulls and paper cut-outs.

Another part of the display for the Day of the Dead.


A view of a dancing skeleton in the entry hall of the British Museum.