To Absent Friends: a festival of remembrance launches 1-7 November 2014 across Scotland.

Coordinated by Good Life Good Death Good Grief it’s been conceived as a way of remembering our loved and lost.

See the film about the idea behind To Absent Friends.

To Absent Friends, a People’s Festival of Storytelling and Remembrance is an opportunity to revive lost traditions and create new ones. It will invite people across Scotland to remember, tell stories, celebrate and reminisce about our loved and lost.

Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief is a membership organisation representing around 700 individuals and organisations interested in living and dying well. To Absent Friends has been created out of a desire to address some of the social isolation people who have been bereaved experienced.

Like Final Fling, they want to encourage us take control of death in our lives. Last year, Final Fling ran a Day of the Dead Festival on 2 November. To Absent Friends straddles from that date – All Souls Day – almost up to Remembrance Sunday.

We want it to be normal to talk about life, death, loss, grief. Events like Absent Friends gives a loud clear signal that it’s socially acceptable to share memories and stories of people who have died.

To Absent Friends will be the sum of its parts… a festival of remembrance made up of range of events, happenings, toasts, dinners, vigils, stories told, candles lit, quiet words spoken and rowdy celebrations across Scotland. The festival isn’t bound by time or place; it will happen in homes, communities, public spaces, over social media, shared between friends and families, in hearts and minds.

If you like the idea of To Absent Friends, join in and help establish a new national institution. Organise your own remembrance event… something big or small, celebratory or reflective, share it or keep it private.

Find out more and get involved here. There are small grants available of up to £250. Closing date 19 September, it may be an advantage to apply early.  More information is available here.

Tell us about it!

 Tell Final Fling about your remembrance event and we’ll share it too in social media and our DEADline newsletter.

 

About Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief

Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief is an alliance of organisations and individuals that want to work together to:

• Raise public awareness of ways of dealing with death, dying and bereavement
• Promote community involvement in death, dying and bereavement

Good Life was established and is hosted by the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care.

For more information email: Rebecca Patterson.