As the urn travelled along the procession route, people added paper wishes and memories honouring their ancestors to those that had already been sent in to the project. Our older son and I joined the procession for a little while and then went to the finale site so we could get a good vantage point to view the finale and the burning of the urn. Our younger son was a member of the Spirit Group.
Aerialists from Flam Chen perform 40 feet in the air 
The Spirit Group pulls the urn onto the stage
The Spirit Group unwraps the urn
Spirit Group performance
Stiltwalkers light the urn
A crane raises the urn 40 feet into the air
I wrote about the Urn Project in a post last week: An Invitaton: The Urn Project - All Souls 2006 and invited readers to send in memories and wishes. This post is dedicated to my blogging friends who participated and to all those loved ones they remembered and honoured.
5 comments:
Impressive to see the urn burning like that above the crowd. Is it made from some type of cloth or paper?
Great series of informative photos. I had never seen or heard of this activity before.
laura - The permanent urn frame is made of steel and wire mesh. It was built last year. It was funded by a grant from the same org. that funds "Burning Man" in Nevada. The interior was covered with flammable cloth-mache. Also burning were the paper notes that were put in the urn. Some of these were put in as the urn progressed along the streets; others were emails and photos/notes that were sent in from all over the world.
ow - Day of the Dead/All Souls is a very important celebration in southwestern culture. The idea for the procession grew out of a small event 17 years ago, when a performance artist built a mask and created an event to honour her father. It has developed into a wonderful unification of our diverse southwestern cultures.
Thanks so much for writing about this and showing us these photos. I sent a note, and am so glad to know that it was in the urn and set aglow like that. Beautiful.
RA - It was a wonderful and moving experience to watch the urn burn. I thought of you and your father as the flames rose.
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