Día de los Muertos events combine traditional religious sensibilities with a desire to celebrate.

It’s not true that the dead don’t care about good things in life. Old cultures thought those who passed desired gifts and company as much as mortals. So people reserved time to remember their ancestors.

Mexican Día de los Muertos is just one version of those traditions, remnants of time when Christianity had been spreading around the world, with the Catholic calendar looking for ways to coexist with Indigenous ways to deal with milestones like time, birth, death and harvest scarcity. Today, it is celebrated Oct. 30-Nov. 2.

Those who have passed are waiting for offerings (ofrendas), represented by an altar that can be built at home or at a grave. Photos of dead family members are set with sweet bread and marigolds. Candles are offered, as well as edible or decorative sugar skulls – and anything of which the dead was fond.

Such altars can be seen at local Día de los Muertos events, which turn tradition into community celebration. For example, the program at Hartnell College in Salinas on Thursday, Oct. 30 from 6-8pm, features a procession and performances. Similarly, altar presentations are part of the CSU Monterey Bay event, where Aztec dances will be performed 5-8pm on Saturday, Nov. 1 at the Visual & Public Art Building (No. 70) on the Seaside campus.

Seaside hosts a number of Día de los Muertos festivities. There is an official city event at Laguna Grande Park from 3-7pm Thursday, Oct. 30, where a community altar is being built. The celebration includes a “spooky booth competition,” music from DJ Is-Real starting at 5pm, followed by dance performances by Chinas Oaxaqueñas at 6pm and Danza Azteca Chichimeca.

Another Seaside celebration takes place at Oldemeyer Center, 986 Hilby Ave., put together by Palenke Arts and Monterey Peninsula College, from 6-8pm on Saturday, Nov. 1. There will be an altar, performances by Palenke Arts’ bilingual chorus, Danza Mexika, folklórico dancers and live music by Trio Los Chirrines.

There is a gathering at Soledad Community Center, 560 Walker Drive, from 5-8pm on Nov. 1 with pan de muerto, performances and an adult Catrina contest. In Carmel, the Chicano band Las Cafeteras comes to Sunset Center with Hasta La Muerte – a vibrant, two-act theatrical concert that reimagines the practice of Día de los Muertos. The show takes place 3pm Sunday, Nov. 2 ($45-$79).

All of the events above, except Hasta La Muerte in Carmel, are free.