The Día de los Muertos celebration at the bottom of the Mission Hills slope runs Saturday through Monday, October 31 to November 2, at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. It is organized around where people lived. California State Parks places its historic altars inside the park's historic structures, and each one is dedicated to the individuals who lived within those structures. The Monday-night procession ends at El Campo Santo, a cemetery that held 477 burials between 1849 and 1897.

That makes the weekend a short walk through San Diego's first neighborhood, sitting just below one of its most carefully preserved later ones. State Parks frames its October altar tours around the same idea. Participants hear the stories of families who lived in Old Town in the 1800s and learn what each element of an ofrenda means.

Four buildings, four sets of former residents

The State Parks altars sit in four historic structures.

1. La Casa de Estudillo
2. La Casa de Machado y Stewart
3. La Casa de Machado y Silvas
4. Seeley Stable

A home altar for Día de los Muertos honors a family's own dead in the family's own home. These four follow that tradition, scaled up to a historic district. Each ofrenda stands in the building its honorees lived in. The October 1 State Parks announcement describes traditional ofrendas, folkloric dancers, face painting, sugar skulls, and "thousands of marigolds" across the grounds.

These four aren't the only altars. The Old Town San Diego Chamber of Commerce counts more than 40 altars across the district, built by local businesses and museums. Its self-guided altar map keeps growing as new altars go up. The Chamber's season began October 1. By the time the festival opens, the altars in the historic buildings have company along most of the walk between them.

Two neighboring buildings carry exhibitions that widen the circle of remembrance:

• Captain Fitch Museum hosts Memory • Healing • Belonging, an art show by TK-12 students from San Diego Unified schools exploring remembrance, tradition, and identity.
• U.S. House holds the La Calavera Catrina Fashion Gallery, a temporary exhibition of costumes that appeared in past Catrina Contests. It is sponsored by the Old Town Chamber, the Boosters of Old Town, and the Arts in California Parks program.

The altar that belongs to everyone

The historic altars honor people who lived in Old Town. The Community Altar in the Plaza de Armas is where visitors honor theirs. It is a traditional seven-tiered altar, open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on all three days. State Parks invites visitors to bring a photograph of a loved one and pin it to the altar with a safety pin, and notes that anything placed on the altar will not be returned. If you have only one copy of a family photo, make a print to leave behind.

A hanging installation of wooden butterflies stands beside the altar. Visitors decorate a butterfly, write the name of someone they have lost, and add it to the display. State Parks suggests a $5 donation.

Saturday and Sunday, hour by hour

The weekend program fills in the hours between visits to the altars. Most of it takes place in or near the Plaza de Armas.

• Hands-on art, free from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. State Parks interpreters teach how to make the paper flowers found on altares de muertos and how to cut papel picado to hang on an altar at home. Donations go to the Boosters of Old Town, which funds interpretation and special events in the park.
• Sugar skull workshops with artist Carolina Celaya, for all ages, with a $10 materials fee per skull. The skulls are decorative and not meant to be eaten.
• Magic lantern shows at the Seeley Stable Theatre, where Matt Schnittker presents a Halloween show in the 19th-century style. Each show runs 15 to 20 minutes, on the half hour, starting at 10:30 a.m.
• Bilingual story time from the San Diego Public Library in the garden of La Casa de Estudillo on Saturday and Sunday, including a 2:30 p.m. session each day.
• The Weekend Mercado, an art and craft market along San Diego Avenue and Harney Street on Saturday and Sunday.

Sunday, November 1, adds the 4th Annual Catrina Contest at 2 p.m. in the Plaza de Armas, presented by the Old Town Chamber with music and dancing. The children's category goes first, then the adults. After the contest, State Parks draws the winner of its quilt raffle. Living history volunteers hand-sewed the "Mourning Quilt," and tickets cost $1 each or $5 for six. You don't need to be present to win.

Monday night, the walk to El Campo Santo

November 2 brings the festival back to the question of where the dead are. El Campo Santo sits on San Diego Avenue. Old Town's history of the cemetery describes how much the ground has changed since then. Graves were relocated after 1874, a street railway cut through the cemetery in 1894, and the wall that surrounds it today dates to 1933. State Parks' altar tours tell the stories of families who lived in Old Town in the 1800s, the same century this cemetery served.

The candlelit procession starts at 6 p.m. at Immaculate Conception Church with blessings and traditional dances by Danza Azteca Atlachinolli, then travels down San Diego Avenue to El Campo Santo. State Parks gives the starting point as Twiggs Street and confirms the 6 p.m. start. One tourism listing gives an earlier time, so check with the Chamber on the day. Groups must apply to march in the procession. The Chamber asked for non-motorized floats: "if it rolls, it works," decorated with candles, marigolds, and memories.

To watch without marching, State Parks suggests two options. Sit in the plaza, where the procession plays on the main stage screen, or stand along San Diego Avenue as it passes. The State Parks announcement lists Monday's park hours as 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. That keeps the park open through the start of the procession, though the event page gives 5 p.m. for all three days.

The plaza that stays lit after the park closes

The State Parks program fits into three days. Fiesta de Reyes, the plaza at 754 Calhoun Street, has held its own free Día de los Muertos exhibit, La Experiencia, since September 1. It runs through November 2, with traditional and contemporary altars, art demonstrations, face painters, and a new lighting package that is most visible from late afternoon into the evening. The plaza's restaurants are Casa de Reyes and Barra Barra Saloon.

Fiesta de Reyes posts its live entertainment as a weekly schedule that can change. Mapped onto this week, it looks like this.

The festival hasn't started yet, but tonight's mariachi set at Fiesta de Reyes is a good way to see the altars under the new lighting before Saturday's crowds arrive. On Monday, the folklórico program overlaps the procession.

Getting down the hill

State Parks expects heavy traffic. All of its lots charge a parking fee during the event, Lot F is closed to the public, and overflow parking is at the Caltrans lot at 4300 Taylor Street. The park recommends the Old Town San Diego Transit Center at 4009 Taylor Street, served by the Coaster, the Trolley, and MTS buses.

From the Mission Hills side, you can also walk through Presidio Park. The City's Old Presidio Historic Trail is marked by 13 interpretive signs and runs between Mason and Juan streets, at the Old Town end, and the Serra Museum. A trail account describes it as a dirt path with steep steps in places and warns that it isn't suitable for strollers. Plan for daylight and good shoes. The City's Old Town Pedestrian Plan names a Taylor Street-to-Presidio Park connection as a needed improvement, with sidewalk, curb ramp, and intersection work near Presidio Drive and Jackson Street. That work is still a plan.

Closer to home, the Mission Hills–Hillcrest/Knox Library at 215 W. Washington Street shows Beetlejuice Beetlejuice on Friday, October 30, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in its Community Room. The screening is free, walk-in, and recommended for ages 13 and up. It makes a Halloween-eve start to a weekend that turns, by Monday night, to the candlelit walk to El Campo Santo.

At Hernholm Group, much of our work involves historic houses and the families who have lived in them, and Old Town's altars make the same case for the century-old homes on the hill above. If you own one of those homes and are thinking about who should care for it next, we would be glad to talk quietly about its history and what comes next, and to keep you informed as homes of similar character come to market.