When Will So Many Conferences on Death & Dying Cease to Happen Around Halloween?

Wrapping a body in a shroud demonstration at “National Home Funeral Alliance” Conference

I just came off a five-week string of conferences centered around death and dying. All of them were amazing to attend, but all of them took place just before Halloween (In fact, I noticed at many of them, there was an array of skirts, blouses, scarves and such sporting colorful skulls for the occasion).

I mentioned this Halloween factor to a friend and she laughed out loud. I confess it was already bothering me. I realize it’s important that this topic gather attention, but I wonder for how long it will continue to be hooked on the star of our spookiest national holiday. When will the image of death shed its age-old macabre stereotype?

The National Home Funeral Alliance conference was anything but macabre. It was an amazing gathering in Los Gatos, California, largely consisting of women who feel passionate about the loving process of caring for our dead. Their agenda is to educate the public of our legal right to keep a loved one at home – to allow each person to let go when we are ready, be it a few hours or days after death. I attended an on-hands class about how to care for a body. It centered around what you need to do to lovingly keep your dead parent, spouse, child or family member at home with you until you are ready to say your final words. The conference was filled to the brim with love, gentleness, warmth and education. Except for the Halloween-inspired attire, there was nothing unnerving or morbid about the weekend. BTW this conference is open to the public.

Women gather to sing to a person posed as dying at the “Death OK” conference

Death OK conference identity

The Death OK conference was a force of love and change in motion to be reckoned with. An unexpected showing of 500, also mostly women, came together in Portland, Oregon to bond, attend workshops, rethink and augment the way we practice every aspect of the end-of-life process. While the conference identity has a green skull, the talks were all in the vein of sensitivity around a wide range of topics. Feel free to check out the workshops here.

I did return home from my round of conferences in time to carve pumpkins and hand candy out to little ones in their costumes. Yet I wonder – when will so many conferences on death and dying cease to be compelled to happen around Halloween?