Dancing devils and skeleton grins: Mexico City celebrates Day of the Dead

Women adorned with skulls and marigold flowers perform in Mexico City's Day of the Dead parade. With a procession almost a mile long (1.5 kilomters), this year's parade was three times as large as last year's maiden effort.

Rescue workers kicked off the parade, processing behind a fist float made of helmets, pick axes and rubble. The raised fist was the signal used by rescue workers asking for silence to hear if people were trapped beneath rubble caused by the September 19 quake that killed 228 people.

Women twirl around in skirts made of paper skull-cutouts. Over 700 performers prepared for months for the colorful parade. September's devastating earthquakes prompted some last-minute changes to the program.

Local media reported that around 300,000 people came out to see the colorful parade on Saturday, compared to 200,000 last year.

One performer scatters marigold-colored confetti from a parade float. Orange marigold flowers are sometimes called the "Flower of the Dead" as they are thought to attract the souls of those who have passed. Some families leave trails of marigold petals in a path to their doorways so the spirits can find their way home.

With trumpets, drums and trombones, skeleton-faced musicians played traditional Mexican folk songs along the parade route.

Many performers and participants painted their faces as colorful skulls in the style of Mexico's iconic "La Catrina" skeleton figure. "We're not only here to celebrate and dance, but also when there's a disastrous situation we come together to help," Violeta Canella Juarez, a 31-year-old attending the parade said.