Tucson, Ariz. – Tucson celebrated its 36th All Souls Procession on Sunday, an event established in 1990 that typically attracts over 150,000 attendees to commemorate loved ones who have passed away.
According to its website, Tucson’s All Souls Procession originated within the city’s arts community, having been originally organized by local performance artists and visual artists as a creative way to honor the dead. Its timing draws from global traditions that view this season as a moment when the boundary between the living and the dead grows thin.
Over time, the event expanded to include participants from diverse backgrounds, each contributing or adapting rituals inspired by traditions such as Mexico’s Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead), Japan’s Obon, Brazil’s Candomblé and Scotland’s Samhain.
With Tucson’s population being 43% Hispanic according to U.S. Census data and about 70 miles from the Mexican border, it’s no surprise that the All Souls Procession is heavily influenced by Día de Muertos traditions and iconography, such as communal altars called ofrendas featuring portraits of deceased loved ones, their favorite foods and objects, papel picado (cut paper decorations), and cempasúchil (marigold) flowers. Many attendees also dress up as La Catrina, a well-dressed skeleton wearing a large hat who is a symbol of death and the Day of the Dead in Mexico…