Aside from the shaking this week, I experienced something else different this evening. As I walked about town I discovered that the courthouse plaza was taken up with celbration. My usual restaurant for a Friday was full. It was some kind of Mexican haloween, and I was struck by the unusual (even for halloween) fixation on skulls. There was skull face painting, and an unusual number of skull stuff about.
I don't know what got into me, but I decided to stop at a mom-n-pop tacqueria. I did not eat there, the food looked a little too warmed over; but on the way out I saw this huge piece of bread in the case with all the other baked goods, marked "Pan de Muerto" or something similar. Even if I hadn't known enough to realize this was "bread of the dead", the fact that it was shaped like a skull would have given it away.
So, after I got home I looked this up on line, and it turns out that November 2 is something called "the day of the dead", which is a Mexican holiday with themes similar to Halloween. Skulls aside, it's generally much more festive, and the activity on the square had this odd juxtaposition of skulls, mexican costumes, and Mariachi music.
It's definitely different. And I still get a chuckle now thinking of "bread of the dead". The thought occured to me that if you tried to eat the whole thing, you would indeed die. It was huge, LOL.
So, all you longhairs, happy Day of the Dead while it still lasts, and don't eat too much bread.
LOL bread of the dead, that's funny. Happy day of the dead to you too :)
-Josh
Yeah, Steve, it's very true that the Mexican holiday, "The Day of the Dead" is a very big deal of a holiday out here in CA (as opposed to it being celebrated in the East Coast of the US, where you hardly ever hear about its existence)...
I've had the occasional co-worker and/or friend / acquaintance explain it to me; but, since this is usually when I am also simultaneously practicing speaking my Spanglish (my Spanish is about as good as a, "Gringo typico" - lol), I'll be damned if I can remember what in the heck they said afterwards (lol)!!
- Ken (the useless cowboy - lol)