Next year’s La Merienda will be June 7, 2025.
La Merienda is Monterey’s birthday party, celebrated each year on the first Saturday in June, commemorating Father Junipero Serra and Captain Gaspar de Portolà’s establishment of the pueblo of Monterey on June 3, 1770.
It is a colorful fiesta of delicious foods, wine, beer, soft drinks, lively music, and festive dance. La Merienda (the Spanish term for an afternoon picnic or mid-day meal) re-enacts an elegant 18th-century festival.
The first modern Merienda was celebrated in 1929, two years before the formation of the Monterey History & Art Association. A ceremony at Colton Hall and a small luncheon at the Memory Garden marked the occasion. It was presided over by Carmel Martin and Harry Greene.
The next year, 350 people celebrated Monterey’s birthday again in the Memory Garden with Carmel Martin as master of ceremonies. The Monterey Herald reported, “The happy group joined in a gala fête amid surroundings that recreated in vivid fashion the scenes of beauty and romance traditional of early California.”
The Monterey History and Art Association has celebrated this historic event annually since the Association was established in 1931, except one year during World War II and two years during the COVID pandemic.
A large rose-adorned birthday cake is carried in by local young men (“cake-bearers”) and is sliced with the sword of Colonel Roger S. Fitch, the first President of the Association.
A local young woman with connections to Monterey is chosen as La Favorita, and reigns over the event with two other young women selected to serve as her attendants (“Doncellas”) accompanied by a chaperone (“La Duena”). These women dress in traditional Spanish gowns and mantillas (scarves) and greet guests, cut the birthday cake, and hold court at the celebration.
The recipient of the Laura Bride Powers Award, Monterey History & Art Association’s most prestigious award, is announced at La Merienda. This award is named after the woman who is credited with conceiving both the idea of the Association and the Merienda celebration, which antedated MHAA’s founding. Mrs. Powers was the Curator of the Custom House and First Theater and an ardent student of California history.
The La Merienda Barbecue is always served by well-known community members, coordinated by the late former mayor Peter Coniglio for 40 years, and by Old Fisherman’s Grotto restraunteur and philanthropist Chris Shake since 2015.
Past Barbecue Committee members have included the Honorable Leon Panetta, former Secretary of Defense and Director of the CIA, Congressman Jimmy Panetta, State Assemblyman Mark Stone, Monterey County Supervisor Mary Adams, Monterey County Sheriff Steve Bernal, Former Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo, City of Monterey Councilman Dan Albert, Jr., Former Mayor Dan Albert, Sr. District Attorney Jeannine Pancioni, Honorable Judge Stephanie Hulsey, City of Carmel Mayor Dave Potter and other community leaders.
Participants can create a “party within a party” with uniquely decorated hosted tables. Attendees may invite friends, don a costume, decorate a table, and have fun at this festive event! With local musicians and dancers and good food and fellowship, the Merienda has always been a favorite Monterey celebration.
Thanks to our generous sponsors!
