Day of the Dead or El Día de los Muertos

I stumbled upon a special Halloween/Day of the Dead event at El Museo del Barrio late on Saturday afternoon way uptown at 5th Avenue and 104th Street. There were loads of kids in costumes and a marching band and treats for the kiddies and face painting and lots of other fun stuff for everyone. All of the employees had great costumes and their faces were 1/2 painted in these colorful scary designs that reminded me of those little Mexican skeletons. Day of the Dead celebrations generally focus on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died, but this seemed a lot more fun and upbeat than that.

My Halloween was a really great day and finding this unique event totally capped it off. One other thing that I can't forget was that inside, as I was waiting for the band to come out of the auditorium, (watch video here) I noticed that they had a couple of large woven baskets filled with this exceptionally tasty cinnamon bread that is traditionally eaten on this holiday. It's called Pan de muerto which I think literally means Bread of the Dead and they were offering pieces of it for free. I took two pieces!