Los Tecuanes peformed a dance in which the human spirits were fighting against evil (represented by the concept of the Jaguar and the Christian element of the Devil). As you can see from the video below, the negative spirits stalk, encircle, taunt & terrorize the humans who must defend against them. Tecuani means "the thing that eats/devours" and "the Dance of the Tecuanis" comes from a part of Mexico where people were attacked by animals and spirits, so this dance is part of fighting back.

 My favorate ofrenda (offering) however, was the one I photographed at the top: the Marigold Paddler. It was created by Guatemalan artist, Evelyn Orantes, based on a vision she had of a Mayan Day Paddler on the occasion of her 33rd birthday. These paddlers transport the Mayan Corn God in a "celestial canoe" (the Milky Way Galaxy) to and from the worlds of the living and dead during the cycle of day and night.

Is the Marigold Paddler traveling the waters of the living which reflects the sky or the waters of the underworld reflecting the moon? Orantes said that she wanted that to be fuzzy, blurring the line between coporeal and spirit just as the Day of the Dead does.

Finally! The lines were long, but I only had to wait 2 hours. Everyone came prepared, however: chairs, books, newspapers, ipods, water, snacks. In fact, lots of folks, even teens and kids, were helping out. My favorite helpers were the 3 little boys that walked up and down the massive voting lines serving free snacks and coffee. how cool was that?

The DC Green Festival was this week and, besides Amy Goodman, Code Pink, Greenpeace, John Perkins (the "Economic Hit Man"...creepy) and a host of my favorite vendors, Maryland-based Terressentials (love their flower therapy) was in the house and the star of the following rap video was promoting their OG products.