Procession of Little Angels (2012)

Here are a few of my pictures of the Procession of Little Angels (PoLA) held on Saturday afternoon/evening, November 3rd, 2012 in Armory Park as part of the All Souls Procession weekend.

This family-friendly event focuses on acknowledging and celebrating deceased loved ones from the perspective of the child.  The kids all looked like they really enjoyed having their faces painted and working with arts and crafts to make wings, stars, and painted sugar skulls.

Painting wings

The picture below is actually among my favorite shots for the whole weekend.  Somehow, to me at least, it seems to capture the spirit of angels and stars looking down and watching the activities, memories, and celebration by those still on earth of those who have passed on.

There were a number of very nice memorial altars in the park.

There was some great harp music during the afternoon to go with the angels.  All angels should have harp music, right?

and of course, lots of photos to be taken by everyone

As evening approached, there were a number of great performances, including stilt walkers and performers who are students of Tucson Circus Arts.  I like the picture of Nadia Hagen pictured below on the right.  The look, the smile, the hand out: challenge, support, confidence, success, happiness -- says a lot about how their student program must work.

Once it got dark, the Procession of Little Angels began, walking around the Armory Park block, led by a great bagpipe player and stilt walkers.  Everyone was having fun.

Every Procession needs some great drumbeats, and they delivered.

Just like the bigger All Souls Procession held downtown Sunday night (also family friendly), some children carried pictures of loved ones who have passed on.

This group were having a total blast dancing, clapping, and jumping in the air as they walked along to the beat!

Back at the main stage, more performances to enjoy.

A lot of the kids really got into dancing to the drum beat at the end of the evening, a great way to end the day.

Also at the PoLA, the new water cut stainless steel urn for this year.  This urn is filled with people's notes of memories, wishes, and remembrances during the PoLA and the next day's All Souls Procession and then burnt up during the finale (as shown in my prior post).  Amazing work and designs on this new urn!

Congrats and kudos to Jhon Sanders and all the other folks who put so much tireless effort and spirit into making this a successful event!

Here is a Flickr slideshow of my full set of PoLA pictures (click lower right icon to expand fullscreen)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23727418@N02/sets/72157631949784585/with/8163118880/