I think most of us do, so if you’re in Vancouver around Hallowe’en, you should go visit A Night For All Souls. Even if everyone you love is still alive, you should go anyhow because it’s full of extreme ethereal dark-hued beauty.
All Souls is in Vancouver’s Mountain View Cemetary, where I’ve often taken pictures and played Ingress before; it’s central and, yes, has a terrific view of the mountains. The project is city-funded and I hope they go on funding it.
The concept is simple: After dark there are soft lights everywhere, many of them in little shrines you can visit and write a message or light a candle.
There is music of some sort; this year, the performers were scattered round the graveyard, synchronized somehow electronically, and the music was dreamy, full of sweet slow shifting shapes
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Some shrines are themed: I recall those dedicated to overdose, and to suicide.
There is a certain amount of spirituality but little overt religion.
I’m not spiritual in the slightest, but it’s not possible to be unmoved.
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It’s just lights in the dark for a while at the end of the day, but at the end of the day that’s all we can really hope to be.
