Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Death Cafe Launched in Finsbury Park
Earlier this year I listed a few death cafe events that had been organised in Alexandra Palace library. Since then, the death cafe movement has apparently mushroomed and last week Harringay resident Elizabeth Wong co-organised the second death cafe in Blighty on Blackstock Road in Finsbury Park.
What is a death cafe
A Death Cafe is a group directed discussion of death with no agenda, objectives or themes. It is a discussion group rather than a grief support or counselling session.
The central organisation in the UK explain their objective as being 'to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives'.
Taken from the Swiss model Café Mortel, started by the sociologist Bernard Crettaz, the concept was brought to the UK by Jon Underwood in 2011.
Since then several death cafés have popped up around the country and there are even plans to open the first physical death café in the capital. All are run on a non-profit-basis
Death Cafes in Blighty
The local events apparently attract people from all walks of life, each with their own reason for being there. Participants range from a man in his 80s planning his legacy to medical students and teenagers going through bereavements.
Death Cafe Crowdfunder
If the idea grabs you as interesting, right now you can get involved in crowdfunding London's first bricks and mortar death cafe
Links
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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So the English are finally beginning to cosy up to Death - "over a nice cup of tea" of course. How else? This is an improvement on tupperware parties or Ann Summers sex-toy-swap clubs for the socially challenged. I suppose it helps people to talk to one another, even if the tupperware toys gather dust on a shelf somewhere. I'm thinking of organising a pre-Christmas Organ Swap cum Vivisection session at the Salisbury or Cafe Lemon.
But if you really want to "take ownership" of Death, or "open up a space" for all those eschatological or scatological "conversations that are to be had" on the subject, why not resurrect the Full Irish Wake throughout Harringay, with full-throated renditions of the trochaic stanzas of 'Dies Irae, Dies Illa' interspersed with the verses of 'Tim Finnegan's Wake'? Tae & Cake laid on with lashings of real whiskey - or 'nice cups of tea' if you insist. An early morning Requiem Mass can be arranged for those who are still awake.
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