Therefore, the Deer Dancer does not present himself until the fiesta of the night before Palm Sunday. He wears a shawl wrapped as a skirt over rolled-up pants. His rattle belt is traditionally of deer hooves attached to rawhide thongs, so numerous that they stand out in a thick cluster. He wears cocoon rattles on his ankles. A real or imitation deer head is fastened to his head over a white cloth.
Red ribbons wound around the horns represent flowers.
A red ribbon bow in the shape of a cross is fastened between the antlers of his deer headdress. While dancing he manipulates a gourd in each hand. Each of these gourds is shaken in a different way. The Deer Dancer dances to the music of three singers who play native instruments. The songs are pre-Spanish and have to do with legends concerning the deer.