Petaluma’s annual El Día de los Muertos celebration turns 25 this year—a quarter-century of transforming the city into a glowing constellation of memory, art and community.
What began as a modest local effort to share the customs of the Day of the Dead has become one of Petaluma’s signature cultural events, with altars rising in shop windows and a candlelight procession winding through downtown streets.
This celebration’s origins trace back to 2000, when Abraham Solar and Marjorie Helm founded the citywide event as a cross-cultural bridge. This October has been officially proclaimed El Día de los Muertos Month by the Petaluma City Council.
The organization’s mission is simple yet profound—to offer opportunities for remembrance and connection. “Through remembrance, we also acknowledge our shared humanity,” Helm noted. This year, more than 35 altars are installed across the city, and the official Altar Walk Map is dedicated to artist and altar-maker Jack Haye, who died earlier this year.
Haye’s longtime partner, artist and shopkeeper Drew Washer, helped start Petaluma’s first community altar with him at the Heebe Jeebe store. “Twenty-five years ago, Jack and I started the Heebe Jeebe Community El Día de los Muertos Altar in the hallway of the Lan Mart building,” Washer recalled. “As years went by and folks brought their photos to add to the altar, they talked to me about their grandparents or family members. And every year they returned, I got to know these people who had died a little bit more.”
The ritual deepened after Washer’s own loss. “When I lost my daughter, Phoebe Washer, in 2008, I was so struck with grief and in shock that I couldn’t set up the altar that year,” she said. “But the community continued doing it, and they even brought mementos for Phoebe. When I saw it, I was so touched, and then something changed in me; I saw that all the people honored and remembered on the altar were a community all their own, and I didn’t see Phoebe as alone anymore, but as part of a community.”
This year, Washer’s friends and family built the altar honoring Haye’s life. “It was hard, but we had to honor his creative spirit, and we knew Jack would appreciate this,” she said. “He was a huge part of building the large skeletons on the altar, along with my kids, Phoebe and Henry, and me. This year, books, tools and little pictures of art surround Jack. He was a special creative force. Now he joins the community of so many of our loved ones.”
One of the celebration’s most enduring venues is The Mail Depot, where owner Maureen McGuigan has hosted altars for 18 years. “Right now, we have five altars in there from various members of our community,” she said. “A lot of times, we have people who have just lost someone that year, and so they’re pretty raw. It’s a good outlet for them to display their loved one’s pictures and stories. It’s really an honor for us to host these altars.”
For McGuigan, the tradition offers both cultural connection and healing. “I felt like it was a way to reach across the aisle to our Latino brothers and sisters here in Petaluma and honor that beautiful tradition,” she said. “It’s beautiful, it’s poignant, and it’s something we all share—keeping memory alive together.”
For updates and specific locations, visit El Día de los Muertos Petaluma’s Facebook page at bit.ly/3KRIbTX.
