A parade with giant puppets standing 10 to 15 feet tall was part of Saturday's 15th annual Día de los Muertos festival, which the Denison Arts Council held at Heritage Park downtown, according to KTEN and KXII.
The Mexican holiday, known in English as the Day of the Dead, honors relatives and friends who have died, with families traditionally inviting the spirits of their ancestors home for a visit. Saturday's program mixed that remembrance with a street-fair lineup: live music, traditional Mexican dance, art and merchandise vendors, food booths, a costume contest and a car show, the two stations reported.
The festival came just a few weeks after Heritage Park reopened following renovations, KTEN reported.
"We're so happy to be able to highlight this fantastic park by doing the celebration here," Cindy Salem, president of the arts council, told KTEN.
Salem tied the event to the downtown arts district the council works to promote. "We are one of the first cultural arts districts in Texas, so we take it very seriously that we want to promote our downtown through art and art tourism," she told KXII. In her KTEN interview, she said the festival brings music, art, dance and color together in a single day.
