Culture

The horn of a conch shell signals the beginning of the procession, led by women in ghostly white garb chanting and dancing to deep drumbeats. Urn ambassadors preparing to lead the procession. At first, the procession is relatively slow, stopping and starting to allow onlookers to write notes to be deposited into the large urn behind the leaders. One woman silently holds out a basket, an offer to accept a slip of paper inside; a memory, or perhaps a prayer, or a simple, “I miss you”. One of the Urn's attendants collecting notes from the crowd. The procession snakes its way up Grande, the quiet footsteps punctuated by the beats of participants’ loved ones’ favorite music or occasional teams of dancers. One woman dances relentlessly to a stream of Latin hip hop, a lit photo of a wo...