Funeral – Death & the Maiden

Playing with death – how the ‘Goodbye-box’ helps children grieve

Rosalie Kuyvenhoven runs Rituals Today, creating meaningful and relevant ceremonies. Her blog is full of innovation and ideas, here she shares Bonnie Jansen’s DAG Box: inspired by a non-directive approach to play therapy, in which children take the lead.

Death and the Maiden

20/05/2018

Guest Post

Bereavement, Bonnie Jansen, Children, Cremation, DAG Box, Funeral, Goodbye Box, Grief, Healing, Mourning, Play, Ritual, Rituals Today, Rosalie Kuyvenhoven

What The Texas Fetal Remains Ruling Really Means and How You Can Take Action

Last Monday, after the Texas State Department of Health Services announced the addition of the word ‘cremation’ to their list of approved methods of disposition for the remains of an abortion or miscarriage, headlines were quick to appear suggesting a forced linkage between certain women’s health services and those of the funeral industry. Still in…

Death and the Maiden

06/12/2016

Guest Post

Abortion, Burial Services, Cremation, Deadmaidens, Death, Education, Emotional, Fetal Remains, Financial, Funeral, Health Care, Law, Legislation, Miscarriage, Pro-Choice, Regulations, Reproductive Justice, Rights, Texas, Women

A Celebration of Death

Festival of Ian Smith, 28th October – 23rd December, 2017 at Edinburgh’s Summerhall is set to be an eclectic mix of art, music, performance and installation – all investigating, challenging, confronting or celebrating death. The festival explores why we often find it difficult to talk about death in our society, and how art and artists…

Death and the Maiden

07/11/2016

Guest Post

Angie Dight, Art, Choice, Culture, Deadmaidens, Death, Death Positive, Edinburgh, Engagement, Exhibition, Festival, Festival of Ian Smith, Funeral, Good Grief, Grief, Legacy, Loss, Mischief La Bas, Society

Eden

In the Borderland, the alien presence can be felt everywhere. This week our friend and the founder of Foolish People, John Harrigan, takes us on a journey to the shores of Eden. Away from the fixed and familiar, into a state of transition. One of suffering, creativity and truth. Grief is a poison bullet. Only with…

Death and the Maiden

26/09/2016

Guest Post

Alzheimer, Art, Borderland, Care, Celebration, Creation, Creativity, David Bowie, Deadmaidens, Death, Dying, Emotion, Experiences, Foolish People, Funeral, Grief, John Harrigan, Loss, Love, Mother, Ritual, Suffering, Truth

Little Miss Funeral

Lauren LeRoy is a funeral director from New York State. Entering mortuary school at nineteen, she had no idea what she was in for. Lauren reflects on her experiences in a male dominated industry and on why her job is so important. This beautiful dedication to her Grandfather’s memory takes us back to a snowy…

Death and the Maiden

19/09/2016

Guest Post

Care, Career, Change, Culture, Deadmaidens, Death, Experiences, Female, Female Identity, Funeral, Funeral Director, Funeral Home, Funeral Industry, Gender Roles, Grief, Tradition

A Better Understanding of Death

Last Thursday Death & the Maiden’s Lucy Talbot attended the Good Funeral Awards, as we had been nominated for the “Most Significant Contribution to the Understanding of Death” award 2016. Here Sarah and Lucy (the Maidens) reflect on the values at the core of their mission and introduce to you the other nominees in the…

Death and the Maiden

12/09/2016

Maiden Post

Acknowledgement, Art, Bereavement, Celebtration, Challenges, Change, Culture, Deadmaidens, Death, Education, Experiences, Funeral, Grief, Major Contribution To The Understanding Of Death, New Approaches, Nominations, Recognition, The Good Funeral Awards

Death & the Maidens: Why Women Are Working With Death

Death & the Maiden’s co-founder, Sarah Chavez, delves into the reasons underlying the current interest many women seem to have with death, and the rise of the Death Positive movement. Exploring a question persistently asked and rooted at the very core of Death & the Maiden: Why are so many women currently interested in death and…

Death and the Maiden

15/08/2016

Maiden Post, Sarah Troop

activist, Beauty, Career, Death, Death and the Maiden, Feminism, Funeral, Gender Roles, social justice, Society, Women

Talk is cheap. Burials are not: Why only telling people what you want for your funeral is not enough

Amber Carvaly is back on Death & the Maiden today to discuss a subject very close to her heart. As one half of Undertaking LA, Amber encourages anybody and everybody to talk about death, dying and their wishes for the end of life. Although this is important (and she makes clear it absolutely is) Amber…

Death and the Maiden

08/08/2016

Guest Post

America, Burial, Burial Shrouds, Change, Choice, Considerations, Conversation, Culture, Deadmaidens, Death, DIY Funeral, Funeral, Honesty, Modern Funeral, Money, Natural Burial, Planning, Ritual, Tradition, Undertaking LA, USA

The Little Book of Burial

Krista Amira Calvo takes us on a journey across the globe with The Little Book of Burial. A playful hands on experience that sheds light on different cultures and their burial practices. Exploring the evolution of burial and some rituals that are no longer practiced but still very iconic and recognisable to us. This delightful…

Death and the Maiden

06/06/2016

Krista Amira Calvo

anthropology, Bioarchaeology, Burial, Cemetery, Culture, Death, Death Customs, Discussing Death, Dying, Egypt, Funeral, Hindu, History, Krista Amira Calvo, Little Book of Burial, Mourning, Mummification, Native American, Practice, Religion, Ritual, Sky Burial, World History

Modern Mourning

Laurel Witting creates bespoke pieces of jewelry that pay homage to mourning practices of the past. Each piece unique, she finds influence & sometimes materials in the forgotten corners & dusty boxes of yesterday. Handcrafting modern mourning jewelry using traditional beading patterns to both reflect Victorian design & commemorate the dead. Laurel hopes that her mourning…

Death and the Maiden

16/05/2016

Guest Post

Art, Beauty, Change, Creation, Creativity, Culture, Deadmaidens, Death, Design, Dying, Funeral, Grief, History, Loss, Modern Mourning, Mourning, Mourning Jewellery, Recycle, Society, Tradition, Victorian

Tea, Cake & Death

This week is all about The Big Conversation as it’s Dying Matters Awareness Week (9th – 15th of May). We learn from the Mary Poppins of Death herself, Louise Winter, that talking about death can be as easy as tea & cake. From Brooklyn to The Isle of Wight. The more we engage with death…

Death and the Maiden

09/05/2016

Guest Post

Bestival, Celebrant, Celebrate, Change, Deadmaidens, Death, Death Cafe, Dying, Dying Matters, Engagement, Events, Experiences, Funeral, Funeral Celebrant, Future, London, Morbid Anatomy

The Best Of 2015

Women and death, particularly the role women are currently playing in the death positive movement and as death professionals made frequent headlines this year. Here’s a recap of what 2015 had to offer from our co-founder Sarah Troop.

Death and the Maiden

28/12/2015

Maiden Post, Sarah Troop

Art, Career, Change, Culture, Deadmaidens, Death, Funeral, Gender Roles, History, Media, Society, Women

Natural Burial Grounds & Beyond

How much space is left? Why don’t we bury keen golfers in the rough or under the fairway, followers of the turf on the edge of race courses, football fans under the pitch? How much new woodland do we need? The more rural and stunning the landscape, the more local people do not want it altered.…

Death and the Maiden

14/09/2015

Guest Post

British Landscapes, Burial, Cemetery, Deadmaidens, Death, Environment, Funeral, Green Burial, Landscaping, Leedam Natural Heritage, Meadow Burial, Multi-purpose, Natural, Natural Burial, Nature, NBG, Pasture, Regional Variation, Return to Nature, Rural, The future of Death, Trees, Woodland Burial

A Lady Undertaker: 1912

In 1912 an American “Lady Undertaker” addresses the question of why women are especially suited to work with the dead.

Death and the Maiden

07/09/2015

Guest Post

Deadmaidens, Death, Death and the Maiden, Funeral, Gender Roles, History, Industry, Society, Undertaker, Victorian, Women

Death Dialogue in the City

Founder of The Parlor, Emerita Colon is all about launching mortality awareness is Chicago. Her own positive experience of a funeral “gotten right” in 2005 begged the question, why aren’t all funerals like this? Working in the world of death midwifery allows Emerita to contribute to a more community-direct, spiritual, hands and heart-oriented model of…

Death and the Maiden

21/08/2015

Guest Post

Career, Change, Chicago, Community, Compassion, Conversation, Deadmaidens, Death, Death Care, Death Midwives, Empowerment, End of Life Care, Experiences, Funeral, Mourning Cafe, Spiritual, Support, The Parlor

The Ascent of Female Funeral Celebrants

I find myself wondering what this line of work is like for all of the other women who choose to walk this path? How do I take the complexities and subtle communication skills that I have honed, and use and embody as a funeral celebrant, and express them to others in such a way that…

Death and the Maiden

10/08/2015

Guest Post

British Columbia, Canada, Career, Celebrant, Ceremonies, Change, Deadmaidens, Death, Emotion, Eulogy, Experiences, Faith, Family, Funeral, Funeral Celebrant, Grief, Loss, Research, Spirituality, Tradition, Visual Ethnography, Women

Transformative Powers through Making

How exactly did Yuli Somme go from making colourful hand-made felt tea cosies, felted seamless jackets and hats, and the occasional wall hanging to soft coffins? In this beautiful account of how creative direction can change rather unexpectedly we learn that the physical act of creation can release emotion, that from sorrow something truly life affirming can…

Death and the Maiden

15/05/2015

Guest Post

17th Century, Beauty, Bereavement, Burial, Burial Shrouds, Ceremonies, Change, Coffins, Craft, Creation, Creativity, Culture, Deadmaidens, Death, Design, Experiences, Family, Felt, Funeral, Grief, History, Natural, Nature, Processes, Textiles, Transformation, Women, Wool

Lost Souls

This week features one of Death & the Maiden’s favourite shops. Samantha Lyn owner of Funereal Ephemera collects postmortem photographs, memorial cards, funeral photographs and cemetery photographs. They’re forgotten, only to be revealed generations later, to modern eyes with a modern sense of death and mourning. A piece of history lost and found again. Samantha sees those…

Death and the Maiden

09/05/2015

Guest Post

Art, Beauty, Bereavement, Deadmaidens, Death, Family, Funeral, History, Memorial Cards, Mourning, Photography, Postmortem, Remembrance, Respect, Victorian

Perfume of the Dead

S. Elizabeth discusses the scent of death. Perfumes, oils, and other fragrances played a key role in the process of mummifying a body for burial, as well as denoting what status the person held in life. Scents of loss, grief, passage, and remembrance -perfumers and artistic noses have certainly attempted to create fragrances based around these timeless…

Death and the Maiden

08/05/2015

Guest Post

Deadmaidens, Death, Fragrance, Funeral, Lush, Marketing, Perfume, Poetic, Products, Remembrance, Ritual, Scent, Seduction, Sex, Women

The East End funeral

“No Cockney ritual is more distinctive—or so redolent with elegy, loss and change, themes of a dying culture.” (Economist)

Death and the Maiden

30/03/2015

Guest Post

Artist, Bereavement, Change, Cockney, Culture, Deadmaidens, Debate, East End, Experiences, Funeral, Funeral Selfies, Future, Hearse, History, Loss, Moment, Photography, Private, Public, Ritual, Social Media, Tradition

Women in the Mourning

Author of The Undertaker’s Daughter, Kate Mayfield is here to take us back in time. A time when women were not public figures in the funeral industry but played important roles ‘behind the scenes’ at her father’s funeral home, Kate’s childhood home.

Death and the Maiden

16/02/2015

Book Club, Guest Post