On Sunday the Queen led the nation in homage to the fallen who defended our democracy and freedom to their end.
November is the season for death – from All Souls to All Saints to Halloween. Even nature, with its spiralling brown leaves falling to the ground echoes the end and maybe brings us closer to thinking about our own decline, face to face with mortality.
Last week the token of the most famous tragedy went on sale: the number plates of John F Kennedy’s car in which he was assassinated went on sale fetching $100,000. We are a culture that looks the grim reaper in the eye.
The Victorians shied away from sex but were obsessed with death. Mourners wore black for weeks after the loss of their loved ones. People were hired to cry at funerals. Today though we try to bring smiles into funerals. That’s why I trained to be a funeral celebrant: to focus on celebrating life rather than mourning our loss, adding to the sorrow and sadness already felt. In today’s world we are obsessed with sex and get embarrassed by death. That’s why Death Cafe was set up – to try to break down the taboo surrounding death and encourage people to think about such issues as a good death, a kind death and to get into the mindset of what we actually think about our mortality.
So in this month of November, why not drop along to your nearest death cafe?
Here’s the link to your nearest Death Cafe:
Here’s the link to my funeral celebrancy work: