Still reeling from my sugar high from this Halloween weekend, on Monday, November 2, I rushed across town for a date with the dead.

And I didn't go to a cemetary, though I could have.

No, I had planned to meet these visitors from the afterlife on the festively decorated grounds of the East Los Angeles Civic Center.

This year, Self-Help Graphics and Art put on its 36th annual Day of the Dead celebration there to honor the memory of ancestors past.

But rather than run for my life, as is typical on Halloween, I embraced the deceased with open arms. 

And, no, I didn't turn into a zombie.

But, I quickly learned that death becomes me.

I learned a lot about a part of my culture that I didn't know that much about.

My family doesn't really celebrate this holiday, which occurs on November 1st and 2nd every year.

But personally, I've always loved the artistry behind these reunions with the dead.

Many people donned costumes while walking around in "skull-face," both to celebrate life and to acknowledge their own mortality.

This video should give you a little taste of life after death: