I. Introduction: Where Memory Meets Masonry
Each November, as autumn shadows settle over the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, the dining room of San Dimas Masonic Lodge No. 428 transforms into a place of quiet reverence. Upon the stage stands an altar—candles flicker beside framed portraits of departed brothers and widows, marigolds mingle with sprigs of evergreen, and the Square and Compasses gleam at the center like a beacon of faith, fellowship, and immortality.
For several years, this altar has been assembled during the Lodge’s November Stated Meeting, coinciding with the Mexican Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). What began as a simple gesture of remembrance has evolved into a deeply symbolic ritual that fuses Masonic philosophy with California’s rich cultural heritage. Within this sacred display, Freemasonry’s universal teachings meet the traditions of the land it inhabits—each affirming that memory is the bridge between life and eternity.
The very city where this occurs bears witness to the same spiritual truth. San Dimas, named for the penitent thief crucified beside Christ, draws its name from the man who uttered the immortal plea: “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom” (Luke 23:42, KJV). It is fitting that in a town named for remembrance and redemption, its Masons have built a tradition that honors those who labored before them—reminding all that the true work of the Craft endures beyond the grave.
Thesis: The San Dimas Lodge’s Day of the Dead altar unites Masonic and Mexican traditions within the historical and spiritual soul of its city—revealing that remembrance, redemption, and immortality are threads woven through both Craft and culture.
II. The Historical Setting: From Mission Hills to Modern Brotherhood
The Spanish and Catholic Roots of San Dimas
Before the incorporation of the city, the land that would become San Dimas lay within the Rancho San José, a vast Spanish-Mexican land grant under the spiritual influence of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel. The Franciscan missionaries who named the surrounding region often chose saints reflecting moral transformation. San Dimas, or Saint Dismas, known as the “Good Thief,” symbolizes the possibility of redemption even in one’s final hour. His plea for remembrance and Christ’s merciful response—“Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43, KJV)—established him as a saint of forgiveness and memory.
Yet the naming of San Dimas also carries a more colorful local legend. In the 1800s, the surrounding hills were notorious for horse thieves and cattle rustlers who drove stolen herds up what is still known today as Horse Thief Canyon. Seeking divine protection—or perhaps poetic irony—the landowner named the area San Dimas, after the patron saint of thieves, hoping that the name might dissuade the lawless activity. The humor and symbolism of this act remain embedded in the town’s character: a place that embraces redemption over condemnation, echoing both the legend of its namesake and the moral architecture of the Masonic Craft.
The Founding of San Dimas Masonic Lodge No. 428
The moral and civic values of Freemasonry found fertile ground in this setting. In June 1911, twenty Masons residing in and around San Dimas gathered at Foresman and Hoke Hall (today’s QIP building on Bonita Avenue) to discuss the formation of a local lodge. Their vision was to create a spiritual and civic cornerstone—a fraternity devoted to brotherhood, moral development, and service to the community.
Over the next seventeen years, the fledgling Lodge met in rented halls throughout San Dimas. As membership grew, so did the need for a permanent home. In 1928, the Lodge purchased several lots on the southeast corner of Third and Monte Vista from Mike Alexander, a local barber and member of the fraternity.
The building committee, which included notable Masons such as Stanley W. Plummer—who would later become both Master of the Lodge (1933) and the first Mayor of San Dimas—oversaw the construction of the new temple. The Lodge held its first meeting in the newly erected building on January 12, 1929, during which the officers for that year were installed. Though the structure was still unfinished, it symbolized the perseverance and unity of the brethren. The building was completed in the spring of 1929 and formally dedicated on June 10, 1929.
Since that time, San Dimas Lodge No. 428 has stood as both a literal and symbolic temple—a place where the moral architecture of the Craft has shaped the civic and spiritual life of the community. It is within these same walls that the Day of the Dead altar now rises each year, continuing a century-old pattern of remembrance and renewal.
III. The Masonic Philosophy of Death and Immortality
In The Temple Within, Foster (2016) writes that “death, properly understood, is not a symbol of loss, but of transformation—the reminder that the builder’s labor must one day cease, though his work endures in the hearts of others” (p. 127). Freemasonry’s use of symbolic tools—the scythe, hourglass, and sprig of evergreen—teaches that life’s brevity demands moral purpose.
The scythe reminds the Mason that time will one day reap all living things, urging diligence in virtue. The hourglass, with its falling sand, represents both the passage of time and the opportunity for renewal—when turned, it becomes a symbol of resurrection. The sprig of evergreen, placed upon the grave at a Masonic funeral, signifies the soul’s immortality and the eternal nature of truth.
Accompanied by Pleyel’s Hymn, these emblems teach that a Mason’s true temple is not built of stone, but of actions and principles that outlive him. Death, in this philosophy, is not an ending but an elevation—a “return to the Lodge on High.”
IV. Día de los Muertos: Life, Death, and Return
The Day of the Dead emerged from the synthesis of Aztec veneration of ancestors and Spanish Catholic observances of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days. Its central ritual, the ofrenda (altar), invites the spirits of loved ones to return for a night of fellowship and remembrance.
Each altar includes photographs, candles, food offerings, flowers, and personal mementos—all symbols of continuity. The marigold (cempasúchil) is believed to guide spirits home with its fragrance and color, while candles represent the light of faith and memory. As Carmichael and Sayer (1991) describe, “to remember is to keep alive; the altar is not for the dead but for the living, who must never forget” (p. 88).
Far from a somber rite, Día de los Muertos is a joyous affirmation of connection—a communal act of love, much like the Masonic conviction that virtue and fraternity transcend mortality.
V. The San Dimas Lodge Altar: A Masonic Día de los Muertos
Each November, San Dimas Lodge No. 428 erects an altar on the stage of its dining room, displayed during the Stated Meeting. The timing—within days of Día de los Muertos—connects the Lodge’s remembrance with California’s broader cultural rhythm of honoring the departed.
The altar is adorned with portraits of deceased members and widows, surrounded by candles, marigolds, and Masonic symbols. At its center stands the Square and Compasses, representing moral direction and eternal light. The Holy Bible, open upon the altar, affirms that faith and virtue are the true cornerstones of immortality. Sprigs of evergreen, borrowed from Masonic funerary rites, blend with marigold petals, merging the languages of the Craft and the culture.
The altar welcomes participation. Widows and members bring tokens, names, or photographs to honor those who “have laid down their working tools.” In this act, the Lodge becomes a living monument to love and fellowship. As The Temple Within reminds readers, “He who would serve humanity must first find the need and fill it” (Foster, 2016, p. 142). The altar fulfills that call, offering relief to the living and remembrance for the departed.
VI. Shared Symbolism: The Common Architecture of the Soul
Though born of different traditions, Freemasonry and Día de los Muertos speak the same sacred language. Both teach that death is not destruction, but transformation. In the Lodge, the scythe symbolizes the harvest of time, reminding the initiate that every act sows a moral legacy. On the Day of the Dead, that same truth appears through joyful imagery—the grinning skeletons that dance and play instruments are not mockeries, but celebrations of a cycle fulfilled.
The hourglass, a Masonic emblem of time’s passage, also finds its reflection in the annual rhythm of remembrance that defines Día de los Muertos. Each year the grains fall again, marking another turn of the season when the living and the dead commune. The evergreen sprig, emblem of immortality, shares its meaning with the marigold petals scattered along pathways and doorways to guide spirits home—both expressing that love and virtue never fade.
Light itself unites the two traditions. The candles of the ofrenda mirror the lights of the Lodge, each flame a reminder that divine illumination pierces even the darkness of loss. And just as Masons believe in the “Lodge on High,” where labor ceases and refreshment begins, so too do the celebrants of Día de los Muertos trust in reunion—an eternal fellowship between souls and those who remember them.
In the end, both traditions are acts of construction. The Mason builds a temple of virtue; the celebrant of the Day of the Dead builds an altar of devotion. One works with the compass of morality, the other with the palette of memory—but both create spaces where love endures and where death itself is mastered through meaning.
VII. Cultural Harmony in Practice
The Day of the Dead altar at San Dimas Lodge represents not imitation but integration—a living example of how Freemasonry adapts to local culture while preserving its universal truths. In a city shaped by Spanish faith, Indigenous reverence, and American fraternity, this tradition embodies the union of Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth:
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Brotherly Love – through remembrance of those who labored among us.
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Relief – in comfort to widows and families.
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Truth – in acknowledging life’s impermanence and the immortality of the spirit.
Through this synthesis, San Dimas Lodge continues the mission begun in 1911: to build both the moral and civic architecture of its community—brick by brick, heart by heart.
VIII. Conclusion: Builders Beyond the Veil
In the flickering light of candles on the San Dimas altar, one perceives a deeper unity between faiths, cultures, and times. The Lodge that began with twenty visionaries in 1911 continues its labor not merely in stone, but in remembrance. The name San Dimas—drawn from both the legend of Horse Thief Canyon and the penitent thief who asked to be remembered—embodies the dual lesson of justice and mercy, wrongdoing and redemption.
Whether symbolized by the evergreen of Masonry or the marigold of Mexico, both point to the same truth: the bonds of love and virtue are unbreakable. The San Dimas Lodge’s altar thus stands as a temple of harmony—between Craft and culture, labor and love, the living and the dead. In building it, the brethren of Lodge No. 428 continue the ancient work of all Masons: to construct not merely temples of stone, but temples within.
References
Brandes, S. (1998). Iconography in Mexico’s Day of the Dead: Origins and meanings. Ethnology, 37(2), 201–218.
Carmichael, E., & Sayer, C. (1991). The Skeleton at the Feast: The Day of the Dead in Mexico. University of Texas Press.
Foster, R. E. (2016). The Temple Within. Raymond Foster Publications.
Holy Bible, King James Version. (1769/2020). Cambridge University Press.
Paz, O. (1990). The Labyrinth of Solitude. Grove Press.
San Dimas Masonic Lodge No. 428. (1929). Historical records and founding minutes of the Lodge, Grand Lodge of California archives.
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