Santa Ana, California, holds Southern California’s largest annual Noche de Altares.
Noche de Altares—“Night of the Altars”—is a Día de los Muertos celebration in Santa Ana organized by El Centro Cultural de México. The event began in 2002 as a small local initiative and developed into a large public festival featuring community-built altars, music, dance, food, workshops, and other cultural programming.
The altars, or ofrendas, honor deceased relatives, friends, artists, and community members. They commonly include photographs, candles, marigolds, personal objects, favorite foods, and sugar skulls. Their purpose is remembrance and welcome rather than frightening the dead.
Readers sometimes confuse Noche de Altares with Santa Ana’s other Día de los Muertos activities or with events elsewhere in Los Angeles and Orange County. The quiz’s city answer is Santa Ana; descriptions may also call it Orange County’s largest celebration, reflecting slightly different publicity wording.