Ritual and Remembrance

Ritual and remembrance are meant just as much for us as they are for our loved ones.  Each anniversary of our loved ones passing is yet another opportunity for us to say goodbye, the farewell we didn’t get to say the first time around.  Letting go of someone is part of life, just like saying hello to someone new.  It’s Important to show ourselves and others that we haven’t forgotten those we loved very much.  We can show that love through a gesture like laying flowers at the site where her ashes are interred, or it can be asking the church that conducted the original funeral mass to name him in a memorial on the anniversary of his death.  The important part is that we show up to respect and honor the person’s life and our own.

Rituals are a way to celebrate a life instead of obsessing over the death.  Today I employ rituals to gain closure from suicide.–Excerpt from Healing the Hurt Spirit, by Catherine Greenleaf 

To learn more about grief rituals: https://www.thedinnerparty.org/rituals and for a long list of different cultural rituals: https://thedinnerparty.org/s/ritualcollection

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