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Giant skeletons come alive in Mexico for Day of the Dead celebrations

Updated on: Oct 30, 2019, 16:07:16 IST
Mexico City | By
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A balloon in the shape of a skeleton is pictured near participants dressed as Monarch butterflies during the annual Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City, Mexico, October 27, 2019. (REUTERS)
A balloon in the shape of a skeleton is pictured near participants dressed as Monarch butterflies during the annual Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City, Mexico, October 27, 2019. (REUTERS)

Day of the Dead celebrations began on Saturday with a parade of women dressed as “Catrina”, a famous skeletal representation of death created by cartoonist Jose Guadalupe Posada in 1912.

Giant skeletons springing forth from asphalt roads are taking over streets in the Mexican capital as the city gets ready to celebrate the festive and deeply spiritual Day of the Dead.

The sculptures - built out of cardboard and rocks salvaged from a construction site in Mexico City’s southern Tlahuac neighbourhood - were built by a group of artists ahead of the festival’s climax later this week.

Day of the Dead celebrations began on Saturday with a parade of women dressed as “Catrina”, a famous skeletal representation of death created by cartoonist Jose Guadalupe Posada in 1912.

Also See: PHOTOS| Mexicans parade as elegant skeletons, Catrinas, ahead of Day of the Dead

The Day of the Dead festival, celebrated in Mexico on the first two days of November, is believed to be when the gateway separating the living and the deceased opens, allowing people to pay their respects to those who have died.

A giant skeleton rising from the ground, which is a part of an installation to celebrate the Day of the Dead, is pictured at Tlahuac borough in Mexico City, Mexico October 29, 2019. (REUTERS)
A giant skeleton rising from the ground, which is a part of an installation to celebrate the Day of the Dead, is pictured at Tlahuac borough in Mexico City, Mexico October 29, 2019. (REUTERS)

Mexicans visit cemeteries to pay respects to their late relatives, bringing them food and drinks in a centuries-old tradition mixing pre-Hispanic and Catholic beliefs.

The festival was added to UNESCO’s cultural heritage register in 2008.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. )

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