Halloween is over, but I thought I would post some pictures from another holiday:  Los Dias De Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.  Unlike Halloween, it is not a scary time.  Rather, it is a festive occasion and calls for celebration.  There was a big fiesta in Mesilla, New Mexico to honor the dead.  People built altars for family members who have passed on.  Flowers, candles and   favorite foods are often included in the displays.   Sheets of paper are decorated with skulls and handwritten notes.  Friends and family gather around to tell stories and answer questions about their loved ones.   Roadside memorials are constructed at accident sites to remember the dead.  They are tended as carefully as the graves.  I drove a few miles south of Las Cruces this morning and saw six of these memorials, many with multiple victims.  It is really heartbreaking.  

just for fun