Halloween: what it reveals about our relationship with death
Every year on 31 October, something rather strange happens: our homes fill with skeletons, ghosts appear in shop windows, gravestones emerge on front lawns. Children dress as zombies, vampires and witches. For one night, death is everywhere and nobody seems particularly troubled by it. The rest of the year tells a different story. Death can often feel like one of society's last taboos. So why does Halloween feel different?
Comedy and grief: Finding laughter in life’s darkest moments
For some of us, comedy can be a lifeline through life’s darkest moments. It could be in the form of books, podcasts, films, stand-up, or a much-loved sitcom. For guest blogger, Amy Jackson, stand-up comedy has been a love of hers since her teens, with her earliest favourites being the likes of Lee Evans and Russell Howard. In this blog, Amy explores the relationship between death and comedy, and why we use humour to cope with grief.
Can you die of a broken heart?
For centuries, people have used the idea of a broken heart to describe overwhelming grief and loss. While it was once thought to be purely poetic, modern medicine suggests there may be more truth to the phrase than we once realised.
Life After: A Reflection on Choice, Equity and the Fragility of Humanity
Saiyada Fazal, Organisational and People Development Partner at Dorothy House Hospice Care, recently attended the premiere of Life After, a film focusing on the topic of assisted dying from the perspective of disabled people. Here is her insightful and poignant review on Life After.
Post-mortem photography: a window into the past
In the modern age of smart phones, we often take it for granted that thousands of images exist of ourselves, available at the click of a button, photos taken in seconds and at no cost. But for many families in the 19th and early 20th centuries, post-mortem photography was the only chance to capture an image of a loved one.
London Month of the Dead: spooky soirées and morbid musings
Stephen Coates is the co-creator of London Month of the Dead, a fascinating festival of talks, tours and events about death and mortality, running throughout October. In our latest blog, we find out all about this scintillating series and why Stephen and Suzette Field launched their annual festival of the dead.
The history of death masks: faces of the departed
Throughout history, humans have longed to remember the dead—not just in spirit, but in form. Among the most haunting and intimate expressions of this desire is the death mask: a cast taken from a person’s face shortly after death. From Tutankhamun to Lenin, let’s take a look at death masks through history.
Dying Matters Awareness Week 2025: The Culture of Dying Matters
This Dying Matters Awareness Week, from 5 – 11 May, Hospice UK is focusing on how different communities and cultures in the UK feel, talk about, and deal with death and dying – and what brings them together.
The theme of this year's campaign is: The Culture of Dying Matters.
Reuse of graves in the UK: sacrilegious or pragmatic?
The UK is experiencing a shortage of burial space, particularly in urban areas. The Law Commission has proposed changes to the law to allow the reuse of graves to address this issue. So what does grave reuse entail? And what are the proposed changes? And is this really a new idea at all?