Published on October 20, 2026
Annual Good Mourning Festival and Day of the Dead celebration invites public to explore grief in all its forms
TORONTO, ON — October 1, 2026 — Bringing a universal experience out of the shadows and into the light, the Good Mourning Festival is back at Evergreen Brick Works on October 24 and 25. Together with their partners, Evergreen will host activities, performances, art installations and workshops for the public to explore and express grief in a thoughtfully curated public space.
Highlights of the festival:
The first day, Together in Grief, offers a variety of opportunities to tune into our senses and explore grief and mourning of all kinds. Plant a tulip bulb in the memorial garden, enter a sound bath, have a conversation at the Solace Cafe, or attend a grief allyship workshop. There are over a dozen different activities to check out, allowing visitors to choose the ones that speak most to them.
The second day of the festival is the annual Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration, a Mexican and Latin American tradition in which communities commemorate loved ones who have died.
At Evergreen Brick Works, it includes performances by the Mexican Folk Ballet, a market filled with Mexican and Latin American artisan and food vendors, traditional sugar skull decorating workshops with Maxei Arts Collective, an Ofrenda (altar) to lost loved ones, facepainting, and much more.
“Being away from home, celebrating Día de Muertos in Toronto gives us a way to stay connected to our culture and traditions instead of feeling like we are missing out on an important part of home. It also gives us the opportunity to share this beautiful tradition with the Toronto community and celebrate together,” says Paola Paz from Maxei. “We are most excited about the sense of community and connection that the festival brings. We love the opportunity to come together, share traditions, learn from different experiences, and celebrate Día de Muertos collectively at Evergreen Brick Works.”
While Evergreen has hosted a Day of the Dead celebration for 15 years, they expanded the festival in 2023 to be a two-day affair in which the community could experience many ways of understanding and expressing grief.
Janina De Guzman, Sr. Program Officer at Evergreen, is the lead organizer of the festival. “What I love most about the Good Mourning Festival is that it is at once joyful, sad, reflective and fun. It is a rare opportunity to invite the full spectrum of human experience in a public place, sharing wisdom from different cultural traditions that allow us to fully embody what it means to live and inevitably die,” said Guzman.
The festival is a real community effort, led by the charity Evergreen and animated by a wide variety of practitioners and organizations, including Bereaved Families of Ontario, Living Hyphen, In Good Hands Pet Loss, Parentless Club, Aly Bird Therapy, Lady Death Doula and more.
“Evergreen Brick Works is not just a space to reimagine urban sustainability,” says Jen Angel, CEO of Evergreen. “It is a charity-run public space that aims to bring people together, support local businesses and showcase the creativity, ingenuity and care of our community. The Good Mourning Festival is a beautiful expression of that mission.”
The Good Mourning Festival is supported by the City of Toronto’s Cultural Festival Funding Program and the Government of Ontario’s Experience Ontario program. This festival is also funded in part by the Government of Canada.
Evergreen is a national charity transforming public spaces in our cities to build a healthier future for people and our planet. Evergreen Brick Works, our headquarters in the heart of Toronto’s ravine system, is a former industrial site that we converted into a green community hub, leading climate adaptation and mitigation, and bringing community together to connect with nature and each other.
289-904-2636
tdavine@evergreen.ca
