Talking to the dead
News from Malacca, Malaysia: The small Gujerati community here fears the final rites practice which involves talking to the dead is dying because the young are not interested. For one man, who has provided his services to bereaved families over the past 10 years, his only hope is his son. “I must pass it down […]
Please help!
Judith Simpson is a PhD student in the School of Design at the University of Leeds. She is researching the way in which the dead body is dressed, ‘styled’ and presented and how (or even if) this relates to what people believe about life and death. Here is Judith’s appeal to YOU: I am asking […]
Buried this day
Joan Wytte was born in 1775 in Bodmin, Cornwall. She was sometimes called the “Fighting Fairy Woman” or the “Wytte (White) Witch”. Joan was famed as a clairvoyant, and people would seek her services as a seer, diviner and healer. Her healing practices included the use of “clooties” (or “clouties”), strips of cloth taken from a sick […]
Funnybones
Posted by Vale What is it with this fascination with bones and skeletons? Faced with a pile of them and one man plasters into the walls and cornices, another creates chandeliers and shields while elsewhere anonymous skulls are given names, cleaned, polished and even appealed to for information. Bones seem to be the acceptable face […]
Has TV gone too far this time?
Posted by Vale That’s the headline on a Mail online story about tonight’s Channel 4 documentary about mummification. In it a Devon taxi driver – Alan Bills – is mummified following, as closely as possible, ancient Egyptian practices. Alan died in January after suffering from lung cancer and wanted to take part in the experiment […]
Quote of the week
‘I won’t be Tutankhamun, I’ll be Tutanalan… the grandkids will be able to tell their friends their grandad’s a mummy.’ Alan Billis, whose body has been successfully mummified using ancient Egyptian techniques.
Meet St Pancras
St Pancras was beheaded in 304 during Diocletian’s persecution when he was only 14 years old. His skeleton was clothed in armour in 1777. He now resides at the Church of St Nikolaus in Wil, Switzerland.
Cash for corpses 2
You heard it on the news? You read it in your newspaper? The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has published a report calling on the government to find out of people like the idea of getting a free funeral in exchange for donating their organs. Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern, of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, says: […]
The Last Performance
At a funeral home death is something that may become a daily routine. And it is also where some kind of performance is taking place. ‘The last performance’ is a behind-the-scenes look at the place where funeral rites are prepared. Directed by Jorge Tur Moltó. On Vimeo here.
Euphemisms 1: Officials and officiousness
Posted by Vale Euphemisms are all about not facing up to reality. We like to think we use them for good reasons, but they have a darker side too. This poem, written by Harold Pinter in 1997, uses one of the words we often shy from, yet it too is a euphemism. It was written […]
