Buddhist Temple of San Diego Mochi-Tsuki 2026

Buddhist Temple of San Diego lists Mochitsuki for Saturday, December 19, through Monday, December 22, 2026, at 2929 Market Street on its March 2026 save-the-dates notice. That is the temple's own card. Exact pounding hours, volunteer shifts, and pre-order prices were not on that short list, so reopen buddhisttemplesandiego.org or email info@btsd.net for the flyer before you treat a single Sunday clock as final. A community calendar elsewhere floated December 13; prefer the temple page when sources disagree.

In recent years the public watch day has been a Sunday of steaming, pounding, shaping, and packaging, with rice washing and setup on the Friday and Saturday before. Ko-mochi bags and kasane sets for home altars sold by pre-order only, with no day-of walk-up sales and standby lists after the order deadline. Pickup windows in past editions often opened late morning and closed mid-afternoon on the pound day. Treat 2025's $8 bag / $12 kasane figures as last year's numbers until the 2026 flyer posts. Volunteers of all ages have been welcome for the production weekend, including people who only show up on the pound day itself.

This is temple New Year food work, not a Balboa Park festival night. December Nights at the Japanese Friendship Garden is the free Upper Garden holiday evening on December 4–5. BTSD Obon was the August dance night on the same campus. Seijinshiki at the Friendship Garden lands January 9 for coming-of-age registration. Mochi-tsuki is the rice-cake weekend for households that want temple-made New Year mochi.

Who this is for: sangha regulars, Japanese American families who need reserved mochi, and curious visitors who want to watch pounding without buying a festival ticket. Skip it if you needed walk-up mochi the same morning; that path has been closed in recent editions. Skip it also if you only have a random mid-December Sunday and the temple has not yet posted which day is the public pound.

Call (619) 239-0896 or write info@btsd.net for the order form, deadline, and volunteer slots. Joya-E no Kane is listed for Friday, December 18, on the same save-the-dates note if you are stacking year-end temple rituals. The temple sits on Market Street east of downtown; street parking is limited when a production weekend is running, so build in a walk. Past years closed walk-up sales entirely once the order deadline passed, so do not plan on buying a bag the morning you arrive to watch. Confirm any date shift before you travel, especially if a third-party calendar still shows a different December Sunday.

When: December 19–22, 2026 (hours TBA on temple flyer; confirm)
Where: Buddhist Temple of San Diego, 2929 Market St, San Diego, CA 92102
Last checked: November 10, 2026

Temple notice at buddhisttemplesandiego.org.