Noche de Rabonos, Night of the Radishes, December 23, 2017

Huge crowd, and long lines to see the amazing exhibits of carved radishes, in it's 120th year

 Such beautiful faces in the indigenous people here.

 Dragons were very popular

 A view from behind the booths

Wandering around Oaxaca City, Mexico

Perhaps the most photographed spot in Oaxaca .... the OAXACA sign, with the spectacular Santo Domingo Temple in the background

A good place to start off wandering around Oaxaca City.

There seems an endless supply of surprising combinations of walls and flowers

Perhaps my favorite, as this wall truly seems to be crumbling away, and returning back to nature. So many little details of it's life as wall, and supporter of art even.

One of many entryways to restaurants that entice the passerby to come on in.

Windowsill flowers gone wild?

I love the street art of Oaxaca City, and the variety is amazing.

There is a message here somewhere.

Looking for a live turkey? Look no further than the ever amazing Abastos market.

Christmas is coming. But don't try to rob someone at the ATM machine!

Back to my own neighborhood, I see there is a small plant growing from the buttress of the San Felipe del Agua church. And, another great example of history written in stone.

Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Oaxaca, Mexico, 2017

Let me tell you all about Day of the Dead

Many of us skeletons have great fun all around Oaxaca

We come here to play, and visit our reletives

Some of us are quite beautiful

and we like to dress up

People get so happy they dance in the streets

Kids like to dress up too

Some of us are very tall

Some of us collect skulls

We don't like to make trouble with the Catholic Church, so sometimes we call it All Saints Day

People leave us food and drinks

We especially come to life as dark approaches 

Lots of people buy us flowers

Facepainting becomes a fine art around this time of year 

To visit us at our graves, they put out flowers to show us the way

and light candles and burn incense 

Cemeteries become wonderful parties

If you find an undecorated gravesite, and put a flower on it, you can offer up a bad habit that you want to get rid of, but you might have a hard time finding an undecorated grave

You can stay at your favorite cemetery for hours, because just outside, lots of people are selling food and drink

And some people keep on celebrating the dead all year long!

Oaxaca celebration of Indigenous Pueblos, Aug. 11, 2017

A relatively small event, set up where such events are often placed, just north of the Temple Santo Domingo. I have to say, these small events, and events that take place in the villages surrounding Oaxaca City, are my favorites. If you want to see some of the joy that villagers bring to Oaxaca, be sure to watch the final video through to the end. 

Lots of shopping opportunities

Traditional healers at work, right from their stall. 

Some great folk music right in the center of things

My first time to see a harp in a local performance

I found this spontaneous dancing to be extremely joyful.  This final video is close to 10 minutes long, but worth watching to the end. I think it says why I'm living in Oaxaca better than anything else I've posted.