Dia de los Muertos falls on November 1st – and so it was perfect for the annual celebration downtown to be scheduled for last Sunday. However, due to an uncharacteristic number of days of rainfall over last weekend, the fiesta had to be delayed and rescheduled for this Sunday.
Last year we tried to attend, but didn’t check ahead of time and found out after going to the 9 o’clock mass that the party wouldn’t be starting until after the 11:30 mass, so we only got a preview of the fun. This year we got it right. I knew the diocesan parking garage would be packed for that mass, so I parked the van a couple of blocks away in the Arizona Center parking lot and we walked across and arrived JUST in time for the start of mass.
It was absolutely beautiful as always, but especially meaningful was the communion hymn. Before singing it, the incredible Gordon Stevenson played Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Sleepers Awake, BWV 645) – J.S. Bach, and it brought a flood of memories back from when Jeff arranged the piece for our family quartet (3 cellos and viola). One of the best things we did together.
Then after I was already overwhelmed by his organ performance and improvisation, we sang the hymn, and THAT brought back ANOTHER flood of memories of singing the F. Melius Christiansen arrangement, Wake Awake, For Night Is Flying with the Oak Grove Lutheran Choir (here it is from the Concordia Choir, under the baton of René Clausen).
Well, I was a blubbering mess by the end of all that, but so uplifted by the memories and music!
After mass I doled out a $20 to each of the kids that came along (six of the youngers plus Jacob), and we met up with Laurent and headed down to street level to enjoy the festivities.
Notes on the experience:
- I knew it would be loud. It was loud. The mariachi band was at the center of everything and their speakers were working entirely too well. But dang, they were good! Absolutely love their harmonies and timber, and the guitarrón is my FAVORITE!
- The lines for the food trucks were very long, too long for Jacob and I to even try, so we just wandered while the kids waited in their various lines for their food.
- I took a lot of photos that did not turn out due to motion blur, I forgot to speed up my shutter, my bad.
- BUT — big win for the day: for the first time ever, I conquered my fears and asked a few people if I could take their photo. It was a gimme, of course, because people who come to this kind of event dressed up and wearing awesome makeup are only TOO happy to pose for you! So it was a great way to break the ice since I knew nobody was gonna say no!
- The only people in my family who said yes, however, were Laurent and Jacob. Sigh.
- It was a great day. Glad we went, will probably try again next year and maybe get a few more keepers!
