San Rafael Día de los Muertos 2026: Fourth Street to the Canal

Why does a celebration rooted in the Canal neighborhood put its first altars in a jewelry guild, a bank and a pet food shop on Fourth Street?

The answer goes back to how the event began. In 2023, Steve Mason, senior supervisor of the Albert J. Boro Community Center and a member of the organizing committee for 15 years, told the Marin Independent Journal that the celebration started 35 years earlier "to highlight the culture in the Canal community." He called it "a way to invite the community from the outside to come to the Canal." The downtown altars carry out that same invitation. They are on Fourth Street so people will find their way to Canal Street.

An invitation with a direction

For most of its history, the celebration took place in one spot on one day. During the COVID-19 pandemic it grew to include altars in downtown businesses and a car procession through the city. Mason was clear about the purpose. "It drives up enthusiasm for the main event itself," he said.

The downtown displays outlasted the circumstances that created them. The Downtown San Rafael Business Improvement District lists storefront altars for October through November 2026. It describes them as a reminder of the traditional celebration at the Albert J. Boro Community Center on November 7. The Business Improvement District's own page says the Canal neighborhood hosts the celebration and invites residents and visitors to take part.

So the altar in a Fourth Street window and the procession on Canal Street belong to one event. The windows announce it, and the Canal holds it.

The 2026 calendar stretches that distance

Día de los Muertos is traditionally observed on the first two days of November. In 2025, San Rafael's celebration fell right on November 1, a Saturday. This year the City has scheduled the 38th annual celebration for Saturday, November 7.

November 1 falls on Sunday and November 2 on Monday, so both traditional days land in the stretch before the main event, and the only public altars in town on those days will be the downtown storefronts. The organizers' altar page allows downtown displays from October 1, 2026, through Saturday, November 7, 2026. On the holiday itself, Fourth Street does the job the community center usually does.

This is a practical point for anyone who wants to honor a loved one on the traditional days. You can walk the downtown altars on November 1 or 2, and then go to the full celebration in the Canal the following Saturday.

Where the altars have stood

The organizers say 2026 downtown locations are "to be announced soon," and the Business Improvement District still lists its altar map as coming soon. In the meantime, the altar page keeps an undated list of past hosts. It shows how the displays spread through downtown. Don't treat it as this year's lineup.

From Cricket Wireless at 729 Fourth to Tempest Salon at 1560 Fourth, the list covers most of downtown. Some altars are made by the businesses themselves. Others are made by individual artists, such as Rosa Diaz at Bank of Marin and Nicte Ordonez Ramirez at Crome Architecture. One downtown host appears on both sides of the event. The Multicultural Center of Marin, a nonprofit serving immigrant communities, moved to downtown San Rafael in 2022. It is also a co-organizer of the Canal celebration.

Fitting the altar walk into October on Fourth

The altar window overlaps with several downtown events, so you can easily combine them in one outing.

• Friday, October 9: The free 2nd Friday Art Walk opens galleries, studios and exhibits across downtown.
• Saturday, October 17, 2 to 6 p.m.: The 6th Annual Hops & Vines (& Spirits) Stroll offers tastings at participating Fourth Street businesses. Tickets are for ages 21 and up.
• Saturday, October 24, 1 to 3 p.m.: Trick-or-Treat on Fourth Street includes a pet costume contest in the Plaza from 1:30 to 2 p.m.
• Friday, November 13: The next 2nd Friday Art Walk, after the altars have come down.

For a stop on the West End stretch, Alioto's Focacceria opened in August at 1574 Fourth St., in the corner space that was The Kitchen Table. Chef Alexander Alioto serves focaccia sandwiches, pinsas and fresh pasta to go, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. The organizers' list puts Tempest Salon's past altar at 1560 Fourth St., on the same stretch.

The people who keep it pointed at the Canal

The City's recap of the 2025 celebration credits a partnership between the City of San Rafael, the Multicultural Center of Marin, the Canal community, and many volunteers and local organizations. The individual names in that partnership have changed in recent years.

In 2022, the Pacific Sun named Douglas Mundo as executive director of the organizing committee and Catherine John as coordinator. Mundo said then that he was ready to pass the torch to younger organizers. A year later, Karina Ramirez-Cortez, arts and culture coordinator at the Multicultural Center, chaired the event for the first time after five years of taking part. She said she worked to bring in entertainment for youth and teens, including the Canta con Arle storytelling singalong and a closing dance with Area Agresiva, a band whose members grew up in the Canal.

Zoe Harris, a San Rafael art instructor, has made an altar every year since the 1970s, when a grant took her to Mexico to study the tradition. She described it to the Independent Journal this way:

"This is a beautiful way to adjust to losing someone. You're really welcoming your ancestors or whoever to come back and celebrate."

November 7 at 50 Canal Street, hour by hour

The City's 2026 listing and the organizers' altar rules together give the day's schedule.

1. 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Families and groups build altars at the event site. Everything must be finished by 2 p.m. Organizers allow only blue tape on the walls and offer a limited number of tables on a first-come basis.
2. 3 p.m. The celebration opens with family art activities, music, face painting for children, food for sale and altar viewing.
3. 6 p.m. The walking procession sets off through the Canal neighborhood.
4. After the procession Live music, traditional food and cultural performances continue inside the Albert J. Boro Community Center until 9 p.m.

No performers, vendors or street-by-street route for 2026 have been published yet. Last year gives a sense of the scale. The City's recap, written by Recreation Supervisor Kristie Hubacker, describes 25 altars filling the gym, with marigolds, candles, papel picado and photographs. Children painted sugar skulls and made paper kites, and tamales, pupusas and pan de muerto were on sale. The 2025 lineup included Aztec dancers and live folklórico. In the evening, a large catrina and catrin, elegantly dressed skeletal figures, were pulled through the neighborhood streets as Aztec drums led the way. According to the recap, residents watched from windows and balconies and then came outside to join the procession.

If you plan to build an altar, organizers ask that you leave valuables at home because the altars are on public view. Altars cannot be taken down the night of the event. Teardown is Monday, November 9, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Aimee grew up a third-generation San Franciscan and now works from Marin. To her, the traditions that tie a town together, from the Fourth Street windows to the procession on Canal Street, matter as much as anything on a listing sheet. If you're getting to know San Rafael one season at a time, Aimee Labagh Tenente is glad to share what she knows about the town. Find your San Francisco. Contact Aimee.