October 2016 events at the World Museum Liverpool

October half-term is fast approaching and we are pleased to announce that we are hosting another Day of the Dead celebration on Wednesday 26^th October from 1pm – 4pm, in partnership with the World Museum Liverpool. Our event is free, fun and family friendly. There will be art based activities, Mexican music, a wishing tree and our specially decorated altar honouring those that have gone before us.

If you would like to add a picture to our altar, please bring it along. We will have some craft items to help you personalise the frame and we encourage you to leave a message on the back, sharing a memory about them. Your image will join others from past events, alongside our skull decorations and bright flowers. If you need us to print off your photograph, please email it to us before the event.

We can often talk about difficult subjects a lot easier when we're doing something therapeutic. Arts and crafts can be enjoyed while we talk about the topic of death, or reminisce about loved ones who have died. A lot of us don't have the opportunity to talk openly about those we have lost, as some people shy away from it for fear of upsetting others. We believe in keeping alive the memories of people who have been important to us, and that them dying does not mean we cannot talk fondly of them and the impact they had.

There will also be two more Day of the Dead events, ran exclusively by the World Museum Liverpool on Saturday 29^th and Sunday 30^th October. More information can be found here.

There is also an exciting exhibition at the museum, which is also connected to the topic of death, which runs until 26th February 2017 – Animal Mummies Revealed. This fascinating exhibition explores ancient Egyptian animal mummies, prepared in their millions as votive offerings to the gods.

Featuring mummified specimens such as jackals, crocodiles, cats and birds, the exhibition will also include a recreation of a subterranean animal catacomb, creating an immersive and atmospheric experience.

Mummified jackal, Oriental Museum, Durham, Copyright Kate Wightman, taken from Liverpool Museum website

Using animal mummies from a variety of UK collections, the exhibition will also look at the use of science, such as CT imaging, to learn more about the subject. Find out more here.

Dying Matters Week Review 2016

Dying Matters Awareness Week 2016 is now over! We haven’t had long to put our feet up and recuperate before we’re evaluating the events, uploading pictures and launching a new Gallery tab!

There’s lots happening behind the scenes on Compassionate Liverpool/Dying Well Charter/Compassionate Cities. We’ll share more news on this once it is ready. For now, we would like to review our events from last week and offer a huge thanks to everyone who helped out, supported us or took part.

Day 1 saw us meeting the owls at Sunflowers Cancer Support Centre. In addition to meeting these glorious animals and having some fantastic conversations, we learnt a lot about these birds of prey that was connected to death.

Murray the owl

To encourage the owls to fly to the trainer, she would use some fresh meat to entice them. After initially saying they were chicken feet, and after I had to ask why the feet were pink and without claws, we entered a discussion about chicken farming.

Mango munching the male chick foot

We were told that baby chicks are sexed at one-day old. Female chicks are valued for their egg laying and tastier flesh so male chicks, who will fight other males to the death, are classed as a by-product. Male chicks are commonly used as animal feed and fertilizer. Mice are also fed to the owls on a weekly basis.

Thanks goes to Sunflowers for allowing us to host a table and to Hack Back CIC for letting us meet their owls.

Day 2, we held an open table in the afternoon at Siren Liverpool. The weather wasn’t on our side and it poured down with rain. We did have several people stop by and talk to us, taking away some of our new promotional goodies.

 Tea, cake, chat and promotional goodies from The Bucket Project

Free cake helped and we had some staff members from different floors walking past twice, before coming back and asking about the Day of the Dead display and engaging in conversation with us.

Mini Day of the Dead display at Siren

Thank you to Siren Liverpool for hosting us and providing delicious tea, coffee and cake. Special note to our members Bette and Margaret from Co-Op Funeralcare Garston for supporting us at three of our events.

On Day 3 we attended an art group, back at Sunflowers Cancer Support on Aigburth Road. After introducing the project and showing them some of our promotional items and decorated Day of the Dead skulls, we had some fascinating conversations. Shakespeare was mentioned, how surviving cancer can change your outlook and how we communicate with children about death. We discussed the collaborative art piece from the World Museum and how art can be therapeutic and help when having difficult conversations.

Artists at Sunflowers

Day 4 at the World Museum Liverpool for Meet the Mayas with a bit of Day of the Dead thrown in. We had another ten people contributing to the collaborative art piece, which is almost finished. Plans are in place to have it framed and hung on display within the Treasure House Theatre of the museum, with a plaque thanking everyone who took part.

More people adding their unique touch to our art piece and Adam explaining about the Mayas

After colouring in, we were told about the Mayan skulls and shared wild theories from Ancient Aliens. As most of our guests were hoping to catch a show in the Planetarium, and then missed it due to our long and engaging chat, Adam (our main man from the museum) arranged a private, advance viewing of a new show just for us.

It was an interesting and absorbing show with many detailed facts flowing at such a pace, it was hard to not get lost in the twirling constellations above. It was of particular interest when they started to talk about life-spans of planets, stars, galaxies and the whole universe and explained that these magnificent things will also die one day. Nothing is immortal. It was quite a humbling experience that left you with a greater wonder of life and our place in it. Highly recommend anyone visiting the World Museum to book tickets to this wondrous show.

Viewing the VIP Planetarium show on the left and capturing 'energy' or possibly lighting from the projectors!

Massive thanks to Adam for supporting the event, delivering a talk on the Mayas and treating us all to a VIP Planetarium experience on the day.

Our almost complete collaborative Day of the Dead art piece

Day 5, and our final day of events, was at Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool for It Takes a Community. This was a celebratory evening which gave thanks to the many organisations and people across the city who have supported the hospice in the last twelve months.

Just a sample of organisations that have helped over the last 12 months

Information tables from each of the teams in the hospice were on display with staff and volunteers on hand to chat about their roles in the hospice and to find out how attendees have helped out Marie Curie. The Patient and Family Support Team brought along their therapy terrapin, who was a hit with the kids.

Fundraising table to the left and a schoolboy holding the therapy terrapin

The tour of the hospice was informative, even to someone who has worked there for almost five years! I never noticed how the beautiful stained glass in the Reflection Room, depicted the changing seasons, despite walking past this hundreds of times.

Seasonal stained glass on the informative hospice tour

Our table stood out, and not just thanks to the spider web tablecloth, but more for our Topic of Death Cards. We love hearing what other people interpret the images as, and will be launching another new tab on our blog, which will offer our interpretations and ask you to submit yours. Hopefully, together we can encourage and inspire other people to be more comfortable talking about death, dying and loss.

Table and stand display form The Bucket Project and people below getting involved with the Topic of Death Cards and Day of the Dead display

Thank you to everybody who joined us, supported, hosted or promoted us throughout Dying Matters Week 2016. We’ll hopefully be back with more events this summer. You can view all of the photographs from Dying Matters Week 2016 on our new Gallery.