A Night for All Souls

Coinciding with traditional cultural events like Day of the Dead, the 7th annual A Night for All Souls at Vancouver’s Mountain View Cemetery brings together artists and community to create a family-oriented event for remembrance and reflection. The event allows people to come together and invite conversation about death and its presence in our lives in a way that we no longer do day to day.

We may not live in the village where our ancestors are buried, but that human impulse to remember the dead – as a way of keeping them in our lives – is still there.

Mountain View Cemetery resident artist Paula Jardine approached the manager about A Night for All Souls at a time when the cemetery was going through a major renewal. There was a great interest in introducing public and community arts in the cemetery, a need to feel engaged and claim it as an active public space, rather than a solemn containment for the dead.

This wooden ship that is also a flying phoenix carries the memory of the artist's father.

People of all cultures, faiths, and traditions are welcomed at the event, which spans six days at the threshold to November, from the actual Night for All Souls after dusk on October 29, to the closing ceremony on November 3.

It is a very supportive environment — not somber, but definitely caring and gentle.

All Souls incorporates the ideas of art and community with death and dying. This year’s event includes visual art, crafts, music, film, and performance, as well as community and ceremony. It brings people together in an effort to open the door to conversations about death and dying as a natural part of life, and it utilizes art expression that offers healing for both the creators and the audience. In response to the growing need to actively accept grief and loss as part of our lives, the event offers a space for people to share their loss with an empathetic community, and to honor their loved ones through remembrance and personal memorials.