Halloween. All Hallows' Eve. The beginning of Hallowmas, the time of the year dedicated to remembering the dead.
Does it seem to you like Halloween has overtaken Christmas as an excuse to deck out our houses and yards with thematic decor? On my walks through the neighborhood I'm amazed by house after house that's gone way beyond a little nod to harvest time (pumpkins and corn stalks) to full-scale graveyards, bloody body parts, and cavorting skeletons.
A simple expression of creative dress-up for our homes? Or is the increased embrace of the macabre at this time of year an acceptable way to bring death out of the closet, into our front yards, and onto the streets? Perhaps this is an itch we as a society are longing to scratch more than one night a year?
To observe this Hallowed time, I'm heading off to a Death Cafe, the first I'll attend here in Portland as participant and not organizer. To share the experience with all of you, I'm featuring Why I Talk About Death, a short video created by one of my PDX Death Cafe co-founders, Kate Brassington.
My answer, at the moment, for why I talk about death? So that every day may be Hallowed.
Does it seem to you like Halloween has overtaken Christmas as an excuse to deck out our houses and yards with thematic decor? On my walks through the neighborhood I'm amazed by house after house that's gone way beyond a little nod to harvest time (pumpkins and corn stalks) to full-scale graveyards, bloody body parts, and cavorting skeletons.
A simple expression of creative dress-up for our homes? Or is the increased embrace of the macabre at this time of year an acceptable way to bring death out of the closet, into our front yards, and onto the streets? Perhaps this is an itch we as a society are longing to scratch more than one night a year?
To observe this Hallowed time, I'm heading off to a Death Cafe, the first I'll attend here in Portland as participant and not organizer. To share the experience with all of you, I'm featuring Why I Talk About Death, a short video created by one of my PDX Death Cafe co-founders, Kate Brassington.
My answer, at the moment, for why I talk about death? So that every day may be Hallowed.
click on the image of the screen to watch
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