SANTA PAULA, CA - Come and celebrate Dia de los Muertos on Sunday, November 1, 2015, at the Santa Paula Art Museum, the Museum of Ventura County Agriculture Museum, and the Santa Paula Cemetery. This free Family Day Event will include a day of traditional craft making, music, Aztec dancers, food, storytelling and altar installations. Dia de los Muertos attire is welcomed.

Pick up a Dia de los Muertos passport and collect a stamp at each of the participating locations to enter into a free raffle drawing. A limited number of passports will be available at each of the participating organizations during the event. The location, hours and activities for each organization is listed below.

Santa Paula Art Museum, Jeanette Cole Art Center
117 North 10th Street, Santa Paula, CA 93060
(805) 525-5554
12:00 pm to 4:00 pm

The Santa Paula Art Museum will feature works by artist John Nava and the annual De Colores Art Show which honors female farmworkers. Families can explore the Museum by participating in an “I Spy” activity, create paper flowers, La Catrina bonnets and El Catrin sombreros, decorate sugar skulls and hear stories of the Day of the Dead.

Museum of Ventura County Agriculture Museum
926 Railroad Avenue, Santa Paula, CA 93060
(805) 525-3100
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

The Agriculture Museum, in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will showcase the relationship between Monarch butterflies and other pollinators to agriculture, as well as the symbolic role of the Monarch representing the spirits of ancestors in the Hispanic community.

Each year, hundreds of millions of butterflies travel from the United States and Canada in late October to early November during the time of Dia de los Muertos. The monarch migration is symbolic of ancestors' journey home.

During the event visitors can participate in butterfly-themed activities including creating a butterfly mask and making paper butterflies. Tour our garden of native plants and pollinators, see a live bee hive demo, and count wintering butterflies.

Pierce Brothers Santa Paula Cemetery
380 Cemetery Road, Santa Paula, CA 93060
(805) 525-5258
12:00 pm to 6:00 pm

The Santa Paula Cemetery will hold a day of festivities where visitors can build an altar (ofrenda) at a loved one’s grave site or a community altar, and participate in a procession lead by Aztec Dancers, a blessing by Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, Mariachi music, face painting, sugar skull decorating, and Folklorico Dancers. Food trucks and vendors will be available during the event.