Saturday, October 28, the centuries-old, graceful stone facades of Guadalajara’s city center will echo with the sounds of flamboyantly-costumed Day of the Dead celebrants as they strut their stuff down the hot pavements of the late afternoon into the relative cool of the evening.
The city’s first-ever Dia de los Muertos parade will be divided up into various groups and feature music, puppetry, dance, with security provided by Proteccion Civil and the city’s traffic authority.
The parade’s participants will coalesce at the corner of Avenida Juarez and Calzada Independencia, 4:30 p.m., and leave at 5 p.m. The vibrant ribbon of revelers will stream down Juarez (which turns into Avenida Vallarta west of Calzada Federalismo) until it reaches Avenida Chapultepec. Festivities are scheduled to end there at 9 p.m.
The festival’s organizers emphasis that all are welcome to participate and that there is no need to pre-register. However, they do enumerate the following guidelines: that those participating dress as a variant of the catrin or catrina (involving, among other things, painting your face with the calavera, or traditional skull), eat something prior to the parade’s initiation and carry their own water. In addition, any puppets that one may wish to bring shouldn’t exceed two meters in height and while any and all musical instruments are welcome, it is suggested that the music from whence they issue should somehow pertain to the holiday.
For more information regarding the parade on October 28, go to the Desfile Dia de los Muertos GDL Facebook page or desfilediademuertosgdl.com.