Festival Events 2016

Building community resilience and bringing remembrance into the open - Scotland’s answer to Dia de los Muertos

Social and personal support mechanisms are hugely important in helping people to cope with bereavement, yet religious and/or community-based support networks are non-existent for many people in Scotland. Families, friends and communities genuinely want to support people through bereavement, but often struggle to know how. Rituals of remembrance and memorialisation can build solidarity, yet many Scottish traditions relating to the expression of loss and remembrance have faded over time. To Absent Friends, a people’s festival of storytelling and remembrance, was initiated in Scotland in 2014, to try to address some of these issues. This session will explore how the festival builds community resilience and brings remembrance into the open – from schools to care homes; from Govan to Stornoway, from concert halls to working men’s clubs.

This workshop is taking place as part of Social Aspects of Death, Dying and Bereavement , a conference being held on 5 November 2016, St Stephen's Church, Glasgow.