WACO, Texas — The summer weather is slowly fading, which means fall is approaching in Texas. That also means spooky season is on its way.
Halloween is a major holiday in the US, but there's a much bigger celebration coming to Central Texas.
"Everybody comes out and they get to learn, you know, people that aren't of Mexican descent," Dia de Los Muertos Organizer Nancy Pulcine said. "They're like, I didn't know this is what you guys did. It's amazing. They get to taste the cuisine. They get to see the traditions that we do, and they get involved in it. "
The tradition in Waco started years ago. Pulcine and Eric Linares wanted to find a way to celebrate a prominent holiday in their culture. Dia de Los Muertos is a holiday that is well known in the Latino community, but in Waco, to see that holiday celebrated so openly was not something common.
"We haven't really had a parade or festival at least have this kind of scale or this type of cultural kind of thing for that community," Linares, who wears many hats in the Waco community said. "To see in the center of Waco, like people actually like, out in the open like, showcase being a part of it for a lot of people. They are really excited and just really, you know, I'm really happy that they can see a facet of their culture being displayed so prominently."
This year, there's an added incentive to getting involved with the parade.
There's $3,000 available in cash prizes for the best individual float, the best non-profit organization float and the best school organization float. Linares and Pulcine say they're more than happy to give back to the community that has supported their culture.
"As much as we see that's coming in, we also want to give back and we want people to see, hey, we want you guys to put in that effort," Pulcine said."
"There's $3,000 out there that we're trying to give out. And like we want that money to really go to the community and really help support these organizations," Linares said.
The deadline to apply is Oct. 9. Applications can be submitted to Creative Waco.