San Juan Bautista Día de los Muertos 2026: A Guide to Both Nights

On Oct. 26 last year, the parking lot at El Teatro Campesino was full. Inside the playhouse, actors were rehearsing La Pastorela on the main stage and Esperanza Del Valle was practicing dances backstage, while altars went up in a lobby. BenitoLink described the scene and followed Teatro founder Luis Valdez, then 85, from room to room giving notes. He also stopped to puzzle over a coffee machine that would not dispense.

That one building was getting ready for three things at the same time: the company's Nov. 2 procession, its Christmas pageant, and a brand-new Nov. 1 event that had grown out of a meeting with a San Juan planning commissioner. One year later, that crowded week has become the town's late-fall pattern. These traditions are old, but where they happen and who runs them have changed a lot since 2024. If you're working from a calendar you learned a few years ago, you'll show up at the wrong place on at least one of these nights.

Sunday, Nov. 1: the City's night, on the State Park lawn

The City of San Juan Bautista is holding a free, all-ages Día de los Muertos celebration this Sunday, Nov. 1, from 4:30 to 9 p.m. on the San Juan Bautista State Historic Park lawn. The City's announcement, posted Oct. 15, lists community ofrendas, traditional Mexican music, folklórico, mariachi, a kids' zone, and food, artisan and local vendors.

If your family is building an altar, check the hours. Ofrenda setup in the community space opens at 10 a.m., hours before the music starts, and every display has to come down by 10 p.m. The City was still recruiting vendors, performers and volunteers when it posted the listing, so the lineup will take shape over the final days.

A Nov. 1 celebration is new to town. Last year, an event called Celebración de Vida debuted on Nov. 1 at Washington and Second streets. BenitoLink reported that Planning Commissioner Dan DeVries started it after a meeting he arranged with Valdez, Teatro Executive Director Christy Sandoval and production manager David Alvarez. On the night, Father Alberto Cabrera revived a long-neglected tradition by leading a candlelight procession from Mission San Juan Bautista to the San Juan Cemetery. Mariachi Alma de Mexico played along the way, and BenitoLink counted hundreds of people walking with him. Estrellas de Esperanza, Baile Folklorico Juvenil and Soles de Mexico performed on the stage. Castroville's Banda Vanidosa, playing as El Teatro Campesino's La Banda Calavera, led the crowd back through town.

The 2026 Nov. 1 event is under the City's name, on the State Park lawn instead of Washington and Second. If you went last year, plan to walk to a different spot.

Monday, Nov. 2: Teatro's night, the one that dates to 1972

On Monday, El Teatro Campesino holds its annual celebration at its playhouse on Fourth Street. According to ETC's event page, the outdoor acts run from 5 to 8 p.m. The altar exhibits, the Tiendita and Corina's Cantina will be open inside. At 7 p.m. the procession heads out through the streets of San Juan Bautista and returns in time for an outdoor teatro performance. Community altars will be on display inside the playhouse, and the program includes a danza and a blessing of the ofrendas.

This is the older tradition. BenitoLink notes that Valdez introduced the procession to San Juan Bautista in 1972. The schedule has moved, though. Last year's Nov. 2 program at 705 Fourth St. started at noon, with Esperanza del Valle, poet Michael Jasso, and a folklórico group from Anzar High School appearing for the first time. This year the outdoor program starts at 5 p.m. on a Monday, so it's a weeknight outing that ends with a walk in the dark.

Sandra Arretche of the San Benito County Arts Council helped build the playhouse altars last year. She told BenitoLink what they're meant to hold:

"They have the four elements, earth, wind, fire and water. There are butterflies for reincarnation and marigolds that represent the souls that have come back to visit us and bring the fragrance to welcome our family members home."

The two nights side by side

The table shows the bigger change. Two years ago, Día de los Muertos in San Juan meant one night and one host. Now the City and the theater company each have their own night, at venues a few blocks apart. The same shift has happened to the next tradition on the calendar.

Why La Virgen del Tepeyac plays on Fourth Street, not inside the Mission

El Teatro Campesino's holiday production this year is La Virgen del Tepeyac, running Nov. 27 through Dec. 20. ETC calls it "the biennial holiday tradition presented inside the ETC Playhouse." The play dramatizes the four apparitions of the Virgin of Guadalupe to Juan Diego in 1531. It's the company's longest-running play, staged every other year since 1971 and alternating with La Pastorela.

For most of that history, the play happened inside Mission San Juan Bautista. BenitoLink's 2024 opening-week story explains that both Christmas plays used up to 80 actors, dancers and musicians there, performing on a center stage, in the two side aisles, in the choir loft and at the altar. The 2024 run was the company's first live performance of La Virgen in six years, and its first in the small playhouse, which meant cutting the production down considerably.

Since then, the plays have taken turns on the Fourth Street stage. La Pastorela returned live at the playhouse in late 2023, in what BenitoLink called the first in-person audience event there since the pandemic closure. La Virgen followed in 2024 and La Pastorela in 2025, which brings La Virgen back this year. The run opens the day after Thanksgiving. Check El Teatro Campesino's calendar for performance times and tickets.

If you have relatives who can't make it in person, ETC also rents an archival performance on Vimeo for 48 hours. It's pay what you can, at $5, $10, $15 or $20.

Saturday, Dec. 5 has the most going on

Early in the play's run, one Saturday has three town events from morning to night:

1. 10 to 11 a.m. Coffee with the City Manager. The City describes it as an informal conversation with no formal agenda.
2. 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. First Saturday Living History Day at San Juan Bautista State Historic Park. Admission is $3 for adults and free for ages 17 and under, and parking is free. The State Parks listing also has a Nov. 7 date, if you'd like to go on a quieter weekend.
3. 6 p.m. The 19th annual Holiday of Lights Parade on Third Street, with floats, bands, horses and Santa. The San Juan Bautista Rotary Club is taking entry reservations now.

If you also hold a La Virgen ticket that weekend, you can see the park, the parade and the play without leaving the few blocks between Second Street and Fourth Street. The State Historic Park keeps its regular 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. hours. It closes on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Talking about these events last year, Valdez told BenitoLink that "there used to be a sign that said, 'Come to San Juan to refresh your soul.'" Here are the dates to remember this year: Sunday on the State Park lawn, Monday at 7 p.m. on Fourth Street, Nov. 27 for the play's opening, and Dec. 5 on Third Street. For more on what's changed on the town's main block, see our late-summer guide to Third Street.

Every November I talk with clients who want to know which San Juan Bautista streets the procession passes, or which homes are a short walk from the State Park lawn and the playhouse. If being part of these nights matters in your next move, around town or anywhere in San Juan Bautista, I'd be glad to walk through it with you. Book a Consultation with Erica Trinchero.