Noche de Mole

Noche de Mole returns to the Sherman Heights Community Center on Thursday, October 15, from 6:30 to 9:00 PM. It's the center's signature annual fundraiser and the night that kicks off the season, inaugurating their 32nd Día de los Muertos celebration. The fundraiser adds regional mole tastings, drinks, and live entertainment to the mix, along with an exclusive first look at more than 25 community altars.

That celebration itself goes back to 1994, when local resident Sr. Domingo Sandoval approached the center asking for a space to build an altar in honor of his loved ones. Since then, it's grown into a weeks-long festivity of onsite and front-yard community altars, craft workshops, online tutorials and videos, student tours, food tastings, and a procession. The center describes Noche de Mole as a joyous occasion in which the memory of ancestors and the continuity of life are celebrated, and the Times of San Diego has called it San Diego County's longest-running event of its kind.

If you've never been, the night is a good way to see how the whole thing works before the rest of the celebration unfolds. You get the mole tastings and the live entertainment, and you're among the first to see the altars that will be on display throughout the season. It's a fundraiser, so the tickets go toward keeping the center's programs running.

Tickets are $75 ahead of time and $125 at the door. The event runs from 6:30 to 9:00 PM on Thursday, October 15, at the Sherman Heights Community Center, 2258 Island Avenue, San Diego, CA 92102.