Demystifying Death Week 2024
Taking place across Scotland from 6-12 May, Demystifying Death Week is about shining a light on death, dying and bereavement in Scotland. We are encouraging people to get involved by holding in-person and online events that bring death, dying and bereavement into the limelight.
Below is a list of events registered so far - these pages will be updated over the coming weeks. If you are organising an event that you'd like us to feature, please get in touch.
"Much Ado About Dying" Screening - Screen Argyll, Seil Island
In partnership with Cosmic Cat Films, Good Death, Good Grief, and Screen Argyll
12th May 2024
Seil Island Hall, 34 B844, Oban PA34 4RQ
This event is open to the public.
On 12th May, Screen Argyll are teaming up with Cosmic Cat Films and Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief to screen the new film "Much Ado About Dying" in honour of Demystifying Death Week.
The film is a gloriously eccentric and thought-provoking look at what it means to live. The award-winning documentary follows long-retired actor David Newlyn Gale, living in an unsuitable flat, sustaining himself on cans of soup, keeping himself warm with a small army of electric heaters and battling a mice infestation with toothpaste. The film presents an intimate, occasionally funny and ultimately moving portrait of a solitary life and a quietly critical assessment of the inadequate resources available in the UK for a rapidly ageing population.
A partnership between Cinema For All, Cosmic Cat Films and Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief will bring the new film to community cinemas across Scotland during Demystifying Death Week. Remote and rural cinemas across Scotland are holding discussion screenings of the new film.
A full list of screenings is available here.
Filming Day for a Demystifying Funerals Resource
Organised by the Scottish Independent Celebrants' Association
12th May 2024
Brewsterwells Crematorium, Fife
This event is not open to the public. It is a filming day to create a resource to be used in the future.
SICA is organizing and recording two “staged” funerals at Brewsterwells Crematorium, Fife, on Sunday, 12 May as part of Demystifying Death Week. These will be for imagined people but otherwise conducted exactly as they would if they were “real”. A professional photographer and a videographer will record both ceremonies to provide us with images and video that can then be used by SICA and its members and associates to demystify and explain what actually happens in a modern crematorium funeral service. We aim for these materials to provide a template and a toolkit to organize further events that can explore other types of funerals such as natural burials or ceremonies in community venues.
The event is not open to the general public but if you are interested in taking part it may be possible for a small number of non-SICA members to attend.
For more information please contact:
Michael Hannah, Chair (07712 892479, chair@celebrants.scot) or Gillian Robertson, Secretary ( 07940484319, secretary@celebrants.scot).
SICA website: https://celebrants.scot/
Photo credit: Mayron Oliveira via Unsplash
"Dead Good" Film Screening + Q&A with director Rehana Rose
Organised by North Berwick Coastal Community Connections
Saturday 11th May, 1.00-5.00pm
Abbey Church, North Berwick
This event is open to the public. Please register in advance.
Join us for a screening of the documentary "Dead Good", released in cinemas in 2019, followed by a Q&A with director Rehana Rose to learn more about the film that Dame Emma Thompson described as “beautifully crafted, so comforting…Everyone should see this”.
To book your place please contact: admin@nbc-communityconnections.org.
Visit North Berwick Coastal Community Connections' Events page here.
Photo credit: courtesy of Rehana Rose
Flower Power – remembering those we miss
In partnership with Battlefield Community Project and Finns Place.
Saturday 11th May 2024, 10.30-12.30pm.
Taking place at Battlefield Community Garden, corner of Arundel Drive and Ledard Road, Battlefield, Glasgow, G42 9RE
This event is open to the public. Everyone is welcome.
Come along to our FREE workshop in the Southside of Glasgow!
Nature gives us a great opportunity to reflect and remember, especially when we can see seasons change and plants die, only to spring up again as the days grow longer and the sun comes out.
Join us in the garden to make seed-bombs and paint stones as tokens of remembrance, whilst also giving us a great opportunity to chat about all things death and dying. Acts of Dove will also be coming along with some of their star birds, so a great opportunity to find out more about dove releases and ways to make funerals and memorial services even more unique.
We want everyone to come together and share stories and memories of the people we miss, so bring along your mum, dad, gran, grandpa, aunts and uncles – everyone is welcome!
We will be outside so make sure to wear appropriate clothes for whatever the weather may have in store for us!
More information: https://www.nhsggc.scot/your-health/planning-for-care/events/
There is no need to register, you can just come on the day.
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
Men's Shed Demystifying Death Session
Organised by Milngavie & Bearsden Men's Shed
11th May 2024, 11am - 1:30pm
Milngavie and Bearsden Men's Shed, "The Pagoda", King George V Park, Borland Road,
Bearsden, G61 2NE
This event is open to the Men's Shed community.
The Men's Shed will host an afternoon discussion of death, dying and bereavement. During a one-hour pre-lunch session Shed volunteers will introduce and facilitate consideration of material selected from three topics addressed in the Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief information leaflets. During the shared lunch
attendees will have the opportunity to reflect, share and discuss the material with other members of the group. After lunch members can share their evaluation of the material, the event, structure, process and merits of a follow up. GLGDGG resources will be available for attendees to take away.
Image credit: Milngavie & Bearsden Men's Shed
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