Thursday 20 December 2012

Death Cafe end of 2012 round up


2012 has been fantastic for Death Café.

At the start of the year we’d held 4 Death Cafes in the basement of my house. As of today we’ve held 46 Death Cafes in 6 different countries! Our guide to running a Death Café has been downloaded hundreds of times. Over 400 people have been to a Death Café so far and as you can see from our blog they’re consistently lovely events.

I’m grateful to be working with so many amazing people to offer Death Cafes and now seems like a good time to express this. So, a massive thank you to all who have been along to a Death Cafe, supported us or told people about what we’re collectively doing.

Especial thanks to those of you who’ve run Death Cafes yourself – you’re an amazing bunch! In particular thanks to Lizzy Miles who was has been instrumental in helping Death Café to spread.

Death Café is part of suite of death related projects I call Impermanence and when I started this a family member said to me “The trouble is Jon, no one wants to talk about death.” I think the community of people who are now involved in this work proves him wrong! Death Café feels like a movement and it was great to see us referred to as such in the Independent.

2013 is looking exciting too. There will be Death Cafes far and wide. We will move to a lovely new website. We’re looking to offer new projects that positively change the way we deal with death. Please do get in touch if you’d like to work with us.

Wishing you a very happy festive season.

Jon

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for starting the idea. I have now been to my first Death Cafe and am going to help a friend do one somewhere else. I've always liked talking about death and wished more other people did. Now you've lured them out of the woodwork I'll get the chance of plenty more conversations. What really hit me when I attended my first Death Cafe was the fact that its something we all have in common - not just the bereaved. Its something every one of us will do one day and until then, there's no certainties about what it will like. Thanks

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  2. Jon
    Its a great project you have started. 2013 is going to be an interesting year. I look forward to working with you and other on it

    Nigel

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  3. Check out the amazing article on Death Cafes that was just published in Tea Magazine.
    http://teamag.com/articles/death-cafes%3A-tea,-cake-and-understanding/
    Dan Bolton
    Publisher

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  4. Amazing achievement, Jon. Honestly - dare I say this? - I never thought Death Cafes would fly ("The trouble is..."). I am so happy for the success of your initiative -- which has so much of you about it. And that's the point, really. At that bumping-along-the-runway stage, it was all down to the unique, quirky but zeitgeisty, vision of the occupant of the cockpit. All the best for 2013!

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