There’s nowt so gold as green
Posted by Charles An irony of the natural burial movement is that it was begat by idealists and freethinkers and environmentalists… and then spied and pounced on by venture vultures scenting carrion. When you do the math you can easily see why — and begin to fear that there are going to be tears before […]
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 […]
This ae nighte
Halloween has deep roots. Through All Hallows Eve to the old pagan night of Samhain, each marks the time of year when the veil between this world and the next are at their thinnest and the dead and the living can most easily meet and mingle. As this blog’s contribution to the celebrations, here is […]
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 […]
The sisterhood of the skulls
Posted by Vale If Kutna Hora and Capela dos Ossos show anything it is that we cannot let bones lie. Buried and disinterred, stacked and stored these vast collections become places where the living can meet and marvel at the dead. In Naples, at the charnel house in the middle of its Fontanelle Cemetary, this […]
Be-spoke for one like this
From This is Surrey Today: SCORES of cyclists formed a guard of honour for the funeral procession of a popular cyclist. More than 120 people from local clubs turned out to honour Pete Mitchell at Randalls Park Crematorium in Leatherhead last Thursday. Mr Mitchell covered a staggering 570,000 miles during 62 years of cycling. He […]
Frantisek Rint – baroque and berserk?
Posted by Vale Back in 1278 an Abbot of Sedlec came back to Kutna Hora with some earth from Golgotha in his travel bags. He scattered it in the cemetery and created the most famous and popular necropolis in Bohemia and Central Europe. Grave space was at a premium and, sometime after 1400, a chapel […]
R.I.P. and go…
By Nicola Dela-Croix Look at any comments left on fan sites, on-line news stories and Facebook pages for people who have died, and you will see it there – on comment after comment after comment – those three letters ‘R.I.P.’. Look on flower cards left at death scenes, in books of condolence, there it is […]
Welcome to Capela dos Ossos
Posted by Vale An ossuary is a chest, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. These are photographs of the ossuary in the ancient town of Evora in Portugal. It is estimated to contains the remains of over 5000 people as well as two mummified corpses. […]
Fair comment?
Posted by Vale Here’s a story from last Friday’s This Is Local London website. Teddington campaign group launches petition against spiralling funeral costs Campaigners have encouraged people in the borough to sign a petition against rocketing funeral prices. The campaign group Fair Funerals aims to raise awareness about the sharp increase in prices in the […]
