The dirt walked on today is built on the graves of those who came before.

To honor and celebrate the gifts given by those lost to the living, Day of the Dead — or as its traditionally known in Spanish, Día de los Muertos — festivities will be held at Finnriver on Friday, Nov. 4 and Saturday, Nov. 5.

One of the most integral pieces to this event will be the community altar made by Oaxacan artist Luz Rosario.

“She and [her husband] David were part of the original group that started the Hollywood Forever L.A. huge Day of the Dead celebration festival that has now become tremendous,” said Carrie Bancroft, the new event organizer for Finnriver. “Her husband, David Egeler, was one of the original Latin-music DJs at that event, which has since grown into a multi-day festival with thousands attending.”

“She’s got loads of experience in doing these things,” Bancroft added.

Rosario first brought her celebrations to Port Townsend High School in 2017 and ran it there for two years before COVID hit, Bancroft said.

Port Townsend High School art will be on display in the hay barn with the community altar, and Port Townsend High orchestra students will have a quartet playing pieces by Mexican composers on the main stage, and another student will be playing traditional corridos — a narrative, ballad style of Mexican music — in the Hay Barn.

On the altar Rosario will construct will be marigolds, corn, sweet bread, and other traditional items offering reverence to loved ones lost who can be represented through either photographs people can bring and leave on the altar or by writing their names on slips of paper.

“There’s real belief in indigenous Mexico — which kind of fused with Catholicism around the time of conquistadors — that one can commune with the spirits from beyond in this particular window,” Bancroft said. “And so you can actually commune with your deceased loved ones more easily at this time by creating offerings that are going to be more attractive to them, that are going to pull them to you essentially.”

To add to that attraction on Friday night, DJ David Bonobo will spin Mexican-Latin music.

On Saturday the community altar will continue, and at 10 a.m. people can come out for a ticketed altar-building workshop.

“We’re going to make personal, portable altars,” Bancroft said.

Included in the workshop will be crafts like papel picado, the brightly colored flags often hanging in Mexican restaurants, paper flowers, and painted clay skulls for decoration alongside a loved one’s photograph.

Saturday will also include face-painting, and other kids crafts, alongside a display of decorated grave sites which are a way to take what has previously felt like a kind of ominous place for some, and transform it into a beautiful community gathering, Bancroft said.

There will also be tamales and Mexican hot cocoa for the first 200 people after 3 p.m. Saturday with admission on a sliding scale from $5 to $25, and the net proceeds from all of the events will benefit Jefferson County Immigrant Rights Advocates.

To buy tickets for the altar building workshop and to see the full schedule, go to finnriver.com/dayofthedead.