A night for all souls

By Laureen McMahon

It was a clear and cold night on Oct. 25, yet 1,000 people turned out for Mountain View Cemetery's annual Night for All Souls to honour the dead. It was the largest crowd ever, said cemetery manager Glen Hodges.

Since 2005 Mountain View has hosted the Night for All Souls as a family and community arts festival, as well as other evening events during October and the beginning of November.

The cemetery, at 41st Avenue and Fraser Street in Vancouver, has just completed the first phase of its Master Plan refurbishing under the direction of Vancouver City Council.

With the help of Paula Jardine, cemetery artist-in-residence, Mountain View was alight for its Night for All Souls with artistic displays, as candles and lanterns crafted for the occasion twinkled in the twilight. Visitors toured the newly opened Celebration Hall to pick up flowers, prayer flags, and candles to place on loved ones' graves.

The idea for the Night for All Souls, which began with an interdenominational prayer at sunset, came about through the implementation of the Master Plan which, in addition to renovating the cemetery grounds, is trying to make the cemetery more relevant to the citizens it serves, said Hodges.

"In many cultures around the world, the days at the end of October and beginning of November are considered an important time for honouring the dead in our lives through ceremony and celebration, and for the practical maintenance of the family gravesites."

"In our part of the globe, for many years now, Hallowe'en has managed to co-opt and give a negative impression to ceremonies honouring the dead. Cemeteries are considered scary and `spooky' places, so we decided to challenge that mistaken idea by inviting our neighbours and people from all across the city to join us to find out how beautiful a cemetery can be and how important it is to honour our dead with reverent and respectful practices.

"Customs in our Night for All Souls include inviting everyone to clean and decorate the graves, and to place flowers and lanterns and candles on and around the markers. We also featured displays on the history of the cemetery and its relevance to the city," said Hodges.

"It was also an opportunity to see the cemetery registry for those wishing to locate graves."

More celebrations, said Hodges, were planned over the next week, including artists' workshops on topics such as creating memorials to remember loved ones. A musical quartet, Cellosound, was to perform on Nov. 1.