We Will Remember Them.

Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

John Ley Retallack
Major
Born At Marazion, Cornwall,
England, December 2nd 1865
Died at Grande Prairie, Alberta
October 4th 1924

One of the many military and veterans' graves at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, BC, Canada.  This particular monument, impressive though it is, gives little more than a hint about Major Retallack, O.B.E.'s military past and his influence on British Columbia's economy. For more about his military life, see his entry on the "Some interesting Retallicks of the past" web page on the Retallick Family site.

One of my own projects now is to continue to photograph all the military and military related headstones and plaques at Mountain View Cemetery. I intend to finish this next year - and to organize all my cemetery photographs to allow me to share them easily. I'm primarily interested in seeing that the British Columbia Genealogical Society has photographs of all these, but there are other projects on the go too.

The phrase "We Will Remember Them" is a refrain from the poem, Ode to Remembrance, written by Laurence Binyon in Cornwall. This poem is very often recited at Remembrance Day services in Canada. (Follow the link above to Laurence Binyon's biography and the words to the poem.)

Oct 26 - Nov 1, 2013 - All Soul's Events at Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC

All Soul's Events at Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC 

Mountain View Cemetery photograph, Vancouver, BC, Canada, M. Diane Rogers.

Saturday, October 26 2013

All Souls: Create flower garlands

• 10:00am to 2:00pm
• Mountain View Cemetery, 5455 Fraser Street

Saturday, October 26 2013

All Souls: Opening night

• 6:00pm to 10:00pm
• Mountain View Cemetery, 5455 Fraser Street
• Cost: Free. Donations welcome.

Sunday, October 27 2013

All Souls: Historic walk of the cemetery

• 2:00pm to 4:00pm
• Mountain View Cemetery, 5455 Fraser Street
• Cost: Free. Donations welcome.

Sunday, October 27 2013

All Souls: Threshold Choir performs; Create personal memorials

• 6:00pm to 9:00pm
• Mountain View Cemetery, 5455 Fraser Street
• Cost: Free. Donations welcome.

Monday, October 28 2013

All Souls: Create personal memorials

• 6:00pm to 9:00pm
• Mountain View Cemetery, 5455 Fraser Street
• Cost: Free. Donations welcome.

Tuesday, October 29 2013

All Souls: Create personal memorials

• 6:00pm to 9:00pm
• Mountain View Cemetery, 5455 Fraser Street
• Cost: Free. Donations welcome.

Wednesday, October 30 2013

All Souls: Sugar skulls demonstration; Create personal memorials

• 6:00pm to 9:00pm
• Mountain View Cemetery, 5455 Fraser Street
• Cost: Free. Donations welcome.

Thursday, October 31 2013

All Souls: Little Chamber Music Series that Could performs

• 6:00pm to 9:00pm
• Mountain View Cemetery, 5455 Fraser Street
• Cost: Free. Donations welcome.
  

 Mountain View Cemetery photograph, Vancouver, BC, Canada, M. Diane Rogers.

Friday, November 1 2013

All Souls: Celebrating Mexican Day of the Dead

• 6:00pm to 9:00pm
• Mountain View Cemetery, 5455 Fraser Street
• Cost: Free. Donations welcome.

Cemetery Tours Coming Up - Vancouver BC

At Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, BC, there will be two sets of tours this month. See you there!

First, one on Sunday, June 19th, then another on Sunday, June 26th. Details below.

Join John Atkin (Civic Historian) and Lorraine Irving (BC Genealogical Society) once again on their very popular walking tours. Mill Managers, Union Organisers and Archivists & Piano Salesmen will be discussed, along with lots of other interesting tidbits about the cemetery!

Sunday, June 19th

10am to Noon
$10.00 per person (cash only please)
Rain or shine
No reservations necessary

Meet at 5445 Fraser St at 39th Ave.

http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/NONMARKETOPERATIONS/MOUNTAINVIEW/walk%20poster3.pdf


And next,

Crinolines, Crimes and Courage:
Women of Mountain View Cemetery Historical Walking Tour
Sunday, June 26, 2011

1:00pm-3:00pm

A fundraiser for the Friends of the Vancouver City Archives

Minimum donation $10 (cash only). Maximum 25 people * drop-in only

Meet at the southwest corner of 33rd & Fraser St.



What do a Titanic survivor, a murdered nurse and an adventurous Gastown school teacher all have in common? You will discover the answer and more on this 2 hour tour led by three Vancouver women historians. Visit the grave sites and hear stories about the famous and forgotten remarkable women who helped shape our city. Step back in time to unearth fascinating true tales of struggles, conquests and mystery surrounding the lives of this amazing collection of historically important women. The tour also includes how to decipher grave marker symbolisms.


Tour by 3 women historians from the BC Genealogical Society, Women's History Network of BC & the Herstory Cafe.

Lorraine Irving has been giving tours of Mountain View Cemetery for over 10 years. She is the President, B.C. Genealogical Society, B.C. Historical Federation Director, Vancouver Historical Society member, New Westminster Historical Society member and a guide at Irving House, New Westminster Museum.

M. Diane Rogers is the Editor & Past President, British Columbia Genealogical Society and Secretary, Women's History Network of British Columbia. Teacher, speaker, researcher & writer, British Columbian family history and women's history.

Jolene Cumming is a local historical interpreter whose specializes in early Vancouver women’s history and Stanley Park historical walking tours. She is the co-founder and co-coordinator of the Herstory Cafe and a board member of the Friends of the Vancouver Archives. Jolene is a fourth generation Vancouverite.

Cemetery Events Coming Up - Vancouver & Burnaby

Special cemetery events for Women's History Month, All Souls, and Remembrance Day.

24 October, Sunday, 1-2:30 pm: Women's History Tour with 'yours truly', M. Diane Rogers, Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby. Sponsored by the Burnaby Village Museum. $15. Registration required; please register early - in person, by phone or on-line.

30 October - 2nd November, 6th Annual Night for All Souls at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver. See the Mountain View website for activities that day. Free events. Sunday, October 31st, hear the Threshold Choir from 7-8pm; Monday, November 1st see a special showing of "A Family Undertaking - Home Funerals in America" beginning at 7 pm.

7 November, Sunday, 10-1130 am: War Time Graves tour with Maurice Guibord at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Burnaby. Sponsored by the Burnaby Village Museum. $15. Registration required: please register early - in person, by phone or on-line.

The Final Disposition - Mountain View Cemetery Event - April 24, 2010 Vancouver BC

Gravestone of Nellie LAY, died 5 February, 1920. Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC, Canada (JONES section /*/24/014/0005). Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, Fall 2009.

THE FINAL DISPOSITION - All Day Event

Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC.

April 24, 2010

De-Mystifying Death, Funerals, Cemeteries & Ceremonies

A forum designed to address practical and philosophical matters on dying and death. Discussion begins with hospice care and continues with the role of funeral homes and cemeteries. Alternative options such as green burial and the importance of ritual and ceremony will end the day.

Details at the Mountain View Cemetery website.
Free, but you must pre-register.

This full day event begins with a screening of “A Family Undertaking: Home Funerals in America”, and a session with Romayne Gallagher, Providence Health Care’s Division Head of Palliative Care and the Physician Program Director for Providence's Palliative Care Program.

Then in the afternoon there is a session with Barry Jeske, an independent funeral director and co-owner of Wiebe & Jeske Burial & Cremation Care Providers in Abbotsford, on the 'Funeral Home, the Funeral Director. What do they do?...Can someone “do it themselves” in British Columbia?'.

Then a session with Glen Hodges, Manager of Vancouver's Mountain View Cemetery, on the many roles of a cemetery.

Later, a session with Stephen Olson, Executive Director of Royal Oak Burial Park in Victoria on 'Green Burials and the story behind Canada’s first urban natural burial site in Victoria’s Royal Oak Burial Park.'

Finally Paula Jardine, Mountain View's own Artist in Residence, and Marina Szijarto, a contemporary rites of passage celebrant, artist & designer, discuss various cultural practices honouring the dead and the modern need to understand - and reclaim - the role of the artist in the sacred life of the community.

Free, but space is limited; pre-register.
Details & Registration Information at Mountain View's website.
Saturday, April 24, 2010, 10:30 am - 4:30 pm
Mountain View Cemetery, in the Celebration Hall & Courtyard, 5445 Fraser St, Vancouver, BC. (The Cemetery entrance is at 39th and Fraser.) Easily accessible by public transit.

This event includes tea and cookies, but please bring your own lunch and snacks.

Interesting note: Mountain View Cemetery is currently the only Canadian cemetery recognized by the Green Burial Council which has set the first standards for green burial services and providers and has four levels of certification.

Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver BC is recognized in the 4th level as a 'Hybrid Burial Ground'. "Hybrid Burial Grounds are conventional cemeteries offering the option for burial without the need for a vault (partial, inverted or otherwise), a vault lid, concrete box, slab or partitioned liner. Hybrid Burial Grounds shall not require the embalming of decedents and must allow for any kind of eco-friendly burial containers including shrouds."

For more about green burial in British Columbia, see my previous post on a Mountain View event last fall: Artists and the Green Funeral Movement - Dec 9 2009 .

Gravestone of Mike JURKOVIC, aged 20 (indexed at Mountain View as JURKOVITCH; death certificate indexed as JURHOVITCH), born in Jugoslavija, died 6 February 1935, at Tranquille, BC. Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC, Canada (Section JONES/*/13/002/0011). Also in plot - Phyllis Irene YURKOVICH, buried in 1994 and Robert YURKOVICH, buried in 1992.

Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, Fall 2009. (If anyone is willing and able to translate the inscriptions on this stone for me, please contact me at canadagenealogy@shaw.ca .)

Mountain View Cemetery Tour - November 22 - Vancouver BC

Ellen Jewel TWISS, Section Officer, Royal Canadian Air Force, Women's Division. Born 1914, died in 1947 at age 32. Commonwealth War Graves Commission stone, Mountain View Cemetery, Masonic section, Plot 105, Lot 1, family plot. Parents: William James Twiss and Sadie Jewel Twiss. Photographed October 2009, M. Diane Rogers.

Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC.

In Honour of Remembrance Day Tour - with Lorraine Irving.

In this cemetery, you will find three areas dedicated to veterans.

On this tour, we will feature Commonwealth War Grave monuments starting at the Celebration Hall and ending at the Cross of Sacrifice. Along the way, you will hear stories of veterans, including a nursing sister.

Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 10 a.m. - Meet at the Mountain View Cemetery Celebration Hall & Courtyard (enter cemetery from 39th Avenue at Fraser Street). $10 each person. (Cash only please.)

No reservations needed.

Hot chocolate will be served after the tour - between 11:30 am & Noon.

Mountain View Cemetery, 5455 Fraser Street, Vancouver, BC V5W 2Z3
Phone: 604 - 325 - 2646

More information, including details on tours in 2010, is at the Mountain View Cemetery website.

Related Links:

Canadian Forces after 1918 (including Second World War), Canadian Genealogy Centre, Library and Archives Canada - research sources for Canadian military, including information on obtaining files for those serving in the forces during World War II and database for files of Canadian military killed in WW II, including Ellen Jewel TWISS.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The Maple Leaf Legacy Project

Night for All Souls - Mountain View Cemetery - Vancouver BC Oct 30-Nov 2 2009

A Night for All Souls was created by Paula Jardine, Mountain View's Artist in Residence, in 2005. Here is an article from the Vancouver Sun, 27 October 2008, about last year's event.

In 2009, there will be new participants and new activities at the Night for All Souls event, from October 30 to November 2, 2009.

It begins on Friday, October 30th with prayers at sundown. As in previous years, there will be materials on hand to create your own personal memorials or you can join one of the workshops this week. World Tea Party artist Bryan Mulvihill and Ian Willie/Raven Thunderbird will hold a tea ceremony to honour First Nations people buried at Mountain View and, for the first time, local poets, led by Vancouver's Poet Laureate, Brad Cran, will be present reading at various locations in the cemetery. The evening closes at 10 pm.

On Saturday, October 31st, from 8 to 11 pm,Vancouver’s Helping Mex y Can Society will be co-hosting an evening of Mexican traditions to honour the dead with mariachi music, ancient dances of the Aztecs, and traditional Mexican refreshments. There's a Facebook page for this event here.

On Sunday, November 1st, in the afternoon, from 2 to 4 pm, Poet Laureate Brad Cran and poet Stephen Hollis will host a tribute to the late poets Robin Blaser, Kuldip Gill, David Dawson and Billy Little.

Monday, November 2nd, from 5-6 pm, there is a last opportunity for memorials.

And on Tuesday, November 3rd, the closing ceremony will be held at noon.

For more information, see Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver - on Facebook - on Twitter

Looking for Death Information - Thinking about Genealogy Sources

David Rogers' grave, 1927, Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

The other day, for fun(!) and for a genealogy class I'm teaching at the Burnaby Community Centred College for the Retired, I sat down with a cup of tea, paper and pen, and made a list of all the sources for death information I could think of at the time. Some will have dates of death, others will have cemetery information or the cause of death, but all are potential sources for genealogical death information. Now I've put an asterisk beside those I've used or found family information in during my own research.

I know there must be more sources, perhaps some very obvious ones - please do comment!

DEATH –POSSIBLE SOURCES OF INFORMATION

*Insurance records
*Land records (deeds, assessments, petitions, etc.)
*Cemetery records (including burial records, photographs)
*Funeral home records or crematorium records
Coffin plates
Memorial jewellery or other momentos
Post-mortem photographs
*Newspaper obituary or article or notice
*Government or other records (other than strictly death related) e.g. disaster reports, commissions, year-end reports of epidemics or mortality, or attorney-general or police or court records (including coroner’s reports), etc. Lists, notices, correspondence regarding government aid to orphans, widows, or burial assistance. Also voters lists and the like.
*Tombstone inscription
*Funeral programme
*Government notices of deaths (e.g. in a newspaper for particular months)
*Death certificate/death registration of individual (or a family member)
*Family letters
*Marriage applications, registrations, invitations, etc. of related person
Pension applications
*City/community directories
*Proved will of individual; wills of family members or others
*Church records, burials, burial charges/services (e.g. burial in wool – England 1666-(1770) 1814), memorial gifts or bequests, sessional records, etc.
*Organization or association records or publications, e.g. Royal Canadian Legion – ‘Last Post’; lists or notices of graves visited on 'Decoration Days'. [Also burial assistance records or cemetery records, if the organization has a cemetery or owns cemetery plots for members' use.]
*Community history book
Ship’s passenger lists
*Family photograph of grave/funeral/monumental inscription
Monument makers record
*Genealogical publications or databases, e.g. D.A.R. applications, also family genealogies
*Guardianship applications
*Medical records –physicians or hospital, also autopsy reports
*Memorial or funeral cards
*Probate or estate files, wills, applications, inventories, etc. of individual or another person
*Census – mortality schedules
*Genealogical/historical society recordings of monumental inscriptions
School records and publications
*Military file of individual or related person
*Urn or container of cremains with official or other label
*Legal ads – newspapers, government gazettes. Also auction or other sale notices
Pension records for individual or related person (company, private, government)
*Family bible or other record, family journals, diaries [My grandmother's address book was very helpful - she even added dates.]
*‘In Memory’ website or Facebook page.
Employment records or publications
*In Memoriam notices – newspapers, other publications. Also Cards of Thanks. [Found a newspaper notice from my great uncle remembering his step-sister - 10 years after her death. That's how I found her date of death.]
*Oral or other family tradition, e.g. ‘died at sea’. [My grandmother remembered lilies of the valley on her brother's grave.]
*Funeral, monument or other cemetery related receipts
*Memorial monuments or rolls (other than cemetery related), e.g. cenotaphs, community memorial plaques
*Union records and publications
Certificate of burial/cremation or transfer/transport of body/ashes

(I'm not thinking about indexes here as those should lead us to the actual documents and artifacts. )

And I could have added:

*Obituary collections - printed, on-line, or in card files, etc. from individuals or genealogical/historical societies/museums, etc. [Hope I am not taking these for granted!]

*Birth records of related individuals may have information on deceased parents, etc.

Receipt for purchase of one share BC Electric Power and Gas Company Ltd., from estate of David J. Rogers, 1927. To be paid to G.W. Hamilton, Esq., Undertaker, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Mountain View Cemetery Open House - July 2009 - Vancouver BC Canada

Harpist in Mountain View Cemetery's Celebration Hall courtyard, 11 July, 2009, Vancouver BC

Today, along with other volunteers from the British Columbia Genealogical Society, I attended Mountain View Cemetery's Open House. Mountain View Cemetery is owned and operated by the City of Vancouver and opened in 1887, but many areas in the cemetery have recently been renovated or rebuilt. There is new landscaping, new columbaria and new offices and a Celebration Hall. This event offered Vancouverites and others an opportunity to see those improvements.

The weather was glorious and everyone I talked to was enjoying the music, the tours, the new cemetery facilities and the chance to meet others interested in the cemetery and its history.

Some visitors were from old Vancouver families with many relatives resting at Mountain View. Others were new to the city and wanting to get to know it better. Quite a few were Mountain View neighbours and are accustomed to walking through the cemetery regularly - as one fellow said: 'this is our marble park'. And a few were genuine taphophiles - people with a passion for enjoying and learning about cemeteries.

British Columbia Genealogical Society and Veterans Affairs Canada tables, in the Celebration Hall, Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver BC. 11 July, 2009

Inscription sandblasting exhibit, Celebration Hall, Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver BC, 11 July 2009

BCGS volunteers, Brenda Smith and Cynthia Hamilton, Celebration Hall, Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC. 11 July 2009

Today the BC Genealogical Society had a table, as did Veterans Affairs Canada which has participated in several of the renewal projects for veterans' memorials at Mountain View.

We brought books and articles about BC cemeteries, including our own index of Mountain View gravestones, and we answered lots of questions about these and about family history research in general.

Our main aim today though was to interest Mountain View Cemetery visitors in joining a new 'Friends of Mountain View Cemetery' group. Many signed our contact list. We hope to encourage and support cultural programmes at the cemetery, including regular tours and the annual Night for All Souls event, for example, as well as heritage preservation and education at and about Mountain View.

I noticed that many were also interested in Veterans Affairs projects, especially the 'Valentines for Vets' project. What a great idea!

Mountain View Cemetery had a display showing how inscriptions are sandblasted and cemetery staff were on hand all day looking up burial information and grave locations - often there was a linelup for this service. I have a couple of Mountain View burial 'puzzles' myself, but I saved those for another visit.

Outside in the cemetery, Lorraine Irving, a BCGS member and long time Mountain View Cemetery researcher, and John Atkin, a Vancouver heritage guide and writer, gave group tours. These were well attended, and afterwards many came into the hall in search of further information about the 'Friends'. The City of Vancouver has a video on-line about the history of Mountain View Cemetery featuring Lorraine Irving and Glen Hodges, Mountain View's manager. As Lorraine says, a cemetery is "a museum without walls" and Mountain View certainly reflects the history of Vancouver.

Lorraine Irving is the real inspiration behind the 'Friends of Mountain View Cemetery' idea and she has plans for many different tour themes which we hope will become regular events. Right now, John Atkin has written two self guided tours - one on Vancouver's Mayors and one on the Princess Sophia sinking in 1918.

By far my own favourite among the recently renovated areas at the cemetery is the Infants section, formerly a communal grave area, which now commemorates about 10,000 stillborn or very young infants buried in the cemetery between 1914 and 1971 - most in common graves. In 2005-2006, this was landscaped with a dry stream bed - "One Stone for Every Infant..." where stones engraved with an infant's name can be placed.

This is now a very pleasing area and many today listened to music under the trees and then wandered through the paths here. Others, as you can see, took the time to place flowers on their family graves or simply sat and reflected.

Above photographs, Infants Area, Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC. 11 July 2009

All in all, a very good day. I do hope that Mountain View Cemetery's Open House will become an annual summer event in Vancouver.

If you'd like to know more about the 'Friends of Mountain View Cemetery' group, please contact me at canadagenealogy at shaw.ca

Open House - July 11, 2009 - Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver BC Canada

In Loving Memory of Sarah Ann Saggers Born June 10, 1849, Kelshall, Herts, Eng Died Oct. 13, 1909. Thy Will Be Done.

Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC, Canada

(Horne 1-5-04-010-0009) Family collection; photograph date unknown.

Coming up this Saturday is an Open House event at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

There will be live music, various demonstrations of Chinese traditions and guided tours of the cemetery by John Atkin and by Lorraine Irving. Lorraine is a very active member of the British Columbia Genealogical Society and a long time Mountain View Cemetery researcher. Don't miss her tour.

If you haven't been by the cemetery recently, you may want to have a good look at the changes and improvements made at Mountain View in recent years - for instance, the new columbaria, the Celebration Hall and the nearby gardens with water features.

Cemetery staff are suggesting that on Saturday you 'picnic by the fountain' and help start a new summer tradition at Mountain View Cemetery. I'm all for this, although I know some are not so enthusiastic.

You may see me over in Horne 1 -5 -04 -010 -0009. Nowadays there are few monuments at all in that area of the cemetery but Great grandma Sarah Ann is buried there (and, I believe, Great grandpa too, although Mountain View has no record of him).

Mountain View Cemetery's website has a new look, but still features all the same useful information - including maps and listings of the burials,

along with a good bit of history.

The Mountain View Open House invitation says:

"After 120 years, it’s the beginning of a new relationship between the public and Mountain View, Vancouver’s only cemetery." Especially for those of us with strong family ties to Mountain View, it will be interesting to see what develops in the future.

Since 2005, the cemetery has hosted the Night for All Souls event which is now very well attended. I've written about All Souls before, and hope the summer event will prove as successful.

A number of people are keen to form a 'Friends of Mountain View Cemetery' group or committee. If you're interested, there will be a table for the Friends at the Open House. Be sure to come by and talk with us about this.

We Will Remember Them, 11 November, 2008

Commonwealth War Graves Commission area, Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. October 2008

We will remember them.

The Canadian Virtual War Memorial, with links to individual war graves: http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=collections/virtualmem

Commonwealth War Graves Commission website: http://www.cwgc.org/

Mountain View Cemetery, Renovation of Commonwealth War Grave areas, 2004: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/nonmarketoperations/mountainview/military/improvements.htm

More about A Night For All Souls, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

A few days ago, Douglas Todd, the 'spirituality and ethics' writer for the Vancouver Sun newspaper wrote a good article about the Night For All Souls event this year at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I thought some of my readers would be interested to read this at his blog:
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/thesearch/archive/2008/10/27/vancouver-cemetery-hosts-the-night-for-all-souls.aspx

A Night For All Souls, Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, B.C., October 2008

Mountain View Cemetery, 25 October, 2008, Vancouver, B.C.

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day in Vancouver, British Columbia, perfect weather for the 'A Night for All Souls' event at Mountain View Cemetery. I thought I'd post a few photographs to show something about it.

Mountain View Cemetery opened in 1887. It's not the oldest cemetery in this area, but it is certainly the largest. Today it's 105 acres with about 100,000 burials. In recent years, there have been many changes - the most obvious now the construction of new offices and columbaria, the Commonwealth War Grave Commission's upgrading of its areas and the City and the Last Post Fund's construction of 13 monuments to commemorate the almost 1,000 'known' unmarked veteran's graves at Mountain View. Perhaps more about these projects another time.

Perhaps the most successful addition is the new 'infants burial' stream bed - every rock symbolizing a burial. (These were all in common graves.) One of the 'All Souls' shrines was right beside this area.

Link:

'One Stone for Every Infant', Infant Area Project, Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/NONMARKETOPERATIONS/MOUNTAINVIEW/projects/childrensarea.htm

A Night For All Souls - October 25, 2008 -Mountain View Cemetery - Vancouver, BC, Canada

See my other post about this event: A Night for All Souls - Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, B.C., Canada

The 'Night for All Souls' event at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, British Columbia is a newer tradition for the city - a special time to honour the dead with art and music, and with offerings of candles and lanterns, flowers, personal memorials and thought.

Paula Jardine is Mountain View's 'artist in residence' and she began 'A Night for All Souls' in 2005. She creates events like this which blend art, music and dance with community and purpose and she was the founding artistic director of the Public Dreams Society.

This year, A Night for All Souls at Mountain View in Vancouver is October 25, 2008 from 6 to 10 pm.

"It will be a family friendly sanctuary of beauty for tender feelings, with fires to warm us, music to uplift us, tea to refresh us and materials to create personal memorials for our dead." There are workshops during October so that people can fashion particular kinds of offerings or memorials, if they like.

After 'All Souls', from October 26 to November 2nd, artists will be at the cemetery each evening and there will be opportunities for smaller, more informal gatherings each night.

LINKS

A Night for All Souls, Mountain View Cemetery: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/NONMARKETOPERATIONS/MOUNTAINVIEW/allsouls/index.htm

Paula Jardine, artist: http://islandsinstitute.com/gallery/Jardine/frontpage.htm