Alyssa Braun, 12, of Canton, Mich., comes up smiling at Mud Day in Westland, Mich., Tuesday. The sloppy annual celebration is sponsored by the Wayne County Parks Department. (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)
About 1,00 children ages 12 and under get gloriously dirty in the Mud Day lake, which is created by mixing 200 tons of topsoil with 20,000 gallons of water. And you think a shower cap is going to help? (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)
For once, Danny Sullivan, 8, of Redford, Mich., isn’t getting yelled at by his father for making a mess. (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)
Piling on is encouraged at Michigan’s Mud Day. (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)
It doesn’t last long, but everybody starts standing up in the Mud Day pit, which is 18 inches deep, 75 feet wide and 110 feet long. (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)
Swimming and limbo games are part of the fun. The rules: Play dirty. (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)
Statues in slime emerge from the Mud Day ooze. (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)
Alissa Edwards, 12, of Livonia, Mich., could have paid hundreds of dollars for this at a spa. On Mud Day, it’s free. (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)
Sarah Rojewski, 7, demonstrates that there’s no such thing as a bad hair day on Mud Day. (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)
Ben Rojewski, 7, missed a few spots. (Jeff Kowalsky / EPA)
Steven Cook, 5, jumps into the mud pool, and suddenly getting down and dirty is cool again. (Carlos Osorio / Associated Press)
Millions and millions of years ago, the Earth was a dark and lifeless place, a lonely orb spinning in the forbidding void of space. Then, from the primordial ooze ... (Jeff Kowalsky / EPA)
Isabelle Stupar, 7, is well on her way to full Mud Day coverage. (Carlos Osorio / Associated Press)
His name was Noah Baekelandt, 9, of Westland, Mich. But now his name is Mr. Mud, caked-on king of the Mud Day celebration. (Carlos Osorio / Associated Press)
Everybody gets all prim and properly posed for a snapshot, and then some joker has to go and ruin it with the old rabbit-ears stunt. (Carlos Osorio / Associated Press)
All good, dirty things come to an end, and Mud Day wraps up with a thorough hosing-down by the fire department pumper truck. (Carlos Osorio / Associated Press)
