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?