The skeleton puppet handed out around $50 worth of candy in about 45 minutes on Halloween Eve. The younger kids tend to thank the puppet, while most of the older kids conscientiously thank the humble operator; adults think that the puppet is cool, awesome and creative. One assured me that I’d won Halloween. This was … Read moreMemoria 2026 (Part 2)
Yet another “unseasonably” warm Autumn, with temperatures averaging in the high 50s-low 70s. I’m not complaining, but it does make the seasonal markers for Memoria somewhat less overt. Balmy weather notwithstanding, the grasshoppers have been making their collective presence felt along the river path, the black-crested night herons have departed, the ground is crunchy with … Read moreMemoria 2026 (Part 1)
The Cobblestone Society: 1409 W Morse Ave, Chicago, IL 60626-3481, United States Date: Wednesday November 11th Duration: 6.30 pm – 8.30 pm, with an artist/curator’s presentation at 7.00 pm Join us for a pop-up gallery exhibition and book launch of Tony Wolf’s Make Believe project, a collection of assemblage artworks representing the shrines, altars and … Read moreMake Believe: The Material Culture of Imaginal Religions pop-up exhibition and book launch
Layman Pascal and Brendan Graham Dempsey discuss their upcoming thanatocentric Metamodern Spirituality Lab at the Sky Meadow retreat center in northeastern Vermont.
Over the past fifteen years, an unusual form of public mourning practice has been quietly spreading through German cemeteries and woodland spaces: the Trauerweg, literally a “mourning path” or “grief path.” Neither conventional memorial nor psychotherapy, a Trauerweg is a route through a landscape punctuated by stations intended to give physical form to experiences of … Read moreTrauerwege: Germany’s Emerging Paths of Mourning
Hmmm … The nonprofit in question appears to be https://www.littlewindphoneproject.org and while I see no reason to doubt their sincerity nor competence, I think they’re fundamentally missing the point. Wind phones gain from the DIY model; frictionless is not always better.
Mariam Vahradyan writes for Psyche: Many cultures around the world actively maintain relationships with the dead through storytelling, prayer and ritual. In Japan, for example, the spirits of the dead are welcomed during the Obon festival. For four days each year, families remember their ancestors by tending to graves, lighting small fires, and making offerings. … Read more“Why you should talk to your dead ancestors”
Sally Hayden writes for the Literary Hub: The road wound upwards, past a sloping graveyard and cedar trees. We passed another hamlet of houses, and I started to spot various signs pointing towards the drifting post. Through a final flurry of trees, it at last became visible. There was a rectangular yellow post box—the “real” … Read more“Mail Between Heaven and Earth: On Japan’s Post Office For Letters to the Dead”