Kicking The Bucket: A Festival of Living and Dying

Credit: kickingthebucket.co.uk

At SevenPonds, we strive to open the conversation on death and dying—and we wholeheartedly support others who do the same. After all, we are just a part of a growing global community. This fall, Oxford-based Westmill Woodland Burial Ground is hosting their annual Kicking the Bucket: A Festival of Living and Dying in venues scattered across Oxford, one of the oldest and most illustrious universities in the world.

In what Victorian poet Matthew Arnold called “The City of Dreaming Spires,” those who attend can sign up for more than 30 events covering the full range of end-of-life issues. Events will include the practical aspects, such as end-of-life planning as well as the more personal questions of spirituality and grief. This wide selection of talks, performances, screenings and workshops will all take place in famous locations, such as the Pitt Rivers Museum or Blackwell’s Bookstore. Attendees can learn as much about the end of life as they can about the city with over a thousand years of history.

If a setting like Oxford sounds somewhat elite, the festival emphasizes its inclusiveness by hosting many free events and reaching out to those who would not usually have access to conversations surrounding death, such as the homeless or people with mental health issues. And given the difficult topics of these events, several of them will also feature designated individuals who can lend support for attendees who need to talk to someone in private after the event.

Credit: anataman

The casual, friendly theme of the festival—instead of “conference”—demonstrates how we can approach such difficult subjects as death and dying without becoming too stiff and formal. Instead, Kicking the Bucket celebrates how engaging with death can provide new, positive perspectives that revitalize our lives. Aiming to be “fun, thought-provoking, informative and moving,” the festival contributes to the end-of-life discussion with a cheerful sincerity that is refreshing and enlightening.

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