{"id":696,"date":"2011-11-04T08:41:07","date_gmt":"2011-11-04T13:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dougandruth.com\/blog\/?p=696"},"modified":"2016-09-05T19:07:41","modified_gmt":"2016-09-05T23:07:41","slug":"halloween-2011-dia-de-los-muertos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/blog\/halloween-2011-dia-de-los-muertos\/","title":{"rendered":"Halloween 2011: Dia de los Muertos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dia de los Muertos: The Day of the Dead, as celebrated in Mexico and selected Central American countries. We made it come to life with an exploding pi\u00f1ata <\/a>and dancing skeletons. Just like they have in Mexico.<\/p>\n \n\t\t

\n\t\t\t \t\n \"Halloween\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n

The dancing skeletons idea came from a clever bit of animation<\/a> Ruth found on the web. With an unlimited schedule and budget, it would have been cool to completely re-animate the video in three dimensional form. Since we are not independently wealthy, we decided to create some moving props to go along with the video itself.<\/p>\n

In its final form, the video was cut down to a minute and half and projected on the front of the house while three skeletons got to pogo up and down on pneumatic cylinders. To add a bit of shock value to the presentation, a faux case of tequila was set out front to open and snap shut.<\/p>\n \n\t\t

\n\t\t\t \t\n \"El\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n

Things that amazed us #1: We didn’t see any children get scared by the tequila box, but we scared the crap out of a couple of adults. Maybe the kids expected something to happen. Maybe we just missed seeing it.<\/p>\n

With the weather being what it was, we really did not expect a big turn-out. Monday morning, Doug went out to shovel the front lawn only to find that it was frozen solid. Setbacks were anticipated, but this was a new one.<\/p>\n \n\t\t

\n\t\t\t \t\n \"Dancing\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n

The snow eventually softened-up to the point that it could be scraped off the grass leaving a wet, almost muddy mess combined with water dripping off the roof. With everything this year being either made out of paper or having 110V running through it, or both, we had some serious concerns.<\/p>\n

The original plan was to decorate much more fiesta-like. Some of the lighting had to be jettisoned and paper flags remained indoors, but we were able to put down enough plywood to keep things dry. The end result was a bit creepier\u2014 fine for Halloween and possibly helpful in integrating our bizarre set-up with our neighbor’s more traditional displays.<\/p>\n \n\t\t

\n\t\t\t \t\n \"El\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n

Things that amazed us #2: Our neighbors confirmed that this was the second most popular theme we’ve used. The first? Giant Floating Eyeballs<\/a>. No idea why. Giant Floating Eyeballs isn’t even a theme.<\/p>\n

By late afternoon Ruth was able to firmly plant the papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 skeletons in the ground on PVC pipe. El Burro del Diablo had been hung and the skeletons were dancing along to their music video. 247 kids later we concluded it was the <\/em>most fun Halloween ever. Watching trick-or-treaters hit the pi\u00f1ata was a blast.<\/p>\n