"The point of this parade is to celebrate life," said director Alejandra Gonzalez Anaya
By Dayann Burbano and Daina Beth Solomon
MEXICO CITY, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Dancing devils, towering skeletons and altars festooned with marigolds will make their way down Mexico City's main thoroughfare on Saturday to commemorate Day of the Dead in a country still mourning nearly 500 people killed in earthquakes last month.
More than 700 performers have prepared for months for the colorful procession along more than 4 miles (7 km) of the expansive Paseo de la Reforma. The two destructive quakes in September prompted some late changes to the program.
Along the route, performers will pay tribute at an elaborate altar to those who died in the quakes. There is also a float with the figure of a fist embodying the idea of "Fuerza Mexico" (Be Strong Mexico), the mantra of solidarity that emerged as rescuers searched for survivors from the second quake on Sept. 19 that toppled dozens of buildings and killed nearly 230 people in the capital.
But the strongest quakes in more than three decades are not expected to diminish a centuries-old Mexican tradition. Participants and onlookers alike will paint their faces as colorful skulls, many in the style of Mexico's iconic skeleton figure known as "La Catrina."
Mariachi musicians will belt out Mexican folk songs while riding a float covered in flowers like the boats that cruise the canals in Xochimilco in southern Mexico City.
Sponsored by Mexico's tourism and culture ministries, the parade is triple the size of last year's maiden effort, inspired by a Day of the Dead parade featured in the opening sequence of the 2015 James Bond film "Spectre."
Some 200,000 people attended last year and at least twice as many are expected to attend on Saturday, a spokeswoman for Mexico's tourism board said. A spokeswoman for production company Anima Inc., which is organizing part of the parade, estimated as many as a million people could turn up.
Although Mexicans typically celebrate Day of the Dead on Nov. 2 in town plazas, homes and cemeteries, the Bond film's popularity prompted Mexico City officials to put on a carnivalesque spectacle. Even so, the event's organizers say the parade is not about emulating a Hollywood super production.
"The point of this parade is to celebrate life," said Alejandra Gonzalez Anaya, Anima's director. "It's to put on the radar of Mexicans an important tradition ... so we feel proud of showing something so important from Mexico to the world." (Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Dayann Burbano; Editing by Dave Graham and Mary Milliken)
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