The Day of the Dead year 2000

Poppy Aza-Selinger wrote this whilst working at the Natural Death Centre in her gap year before university.

The Natural Death Centre in Cricklewood, London launched the UK's National Day of the Dead on April 16th 2000 with an informal gathering around exhibits brought by various artists, which spilled out from a room into the garden - once the likelihood of rain had decreased to 30 per cent.

Unusual funeral artifacts

Hazel Selina, for instance, has designed an inventive and different coffin, called the Ecopod, which 'has evolved from natural form.' It is an intriguing shape, a cross between a bean pod and a sarcophagus, and made from KET, an ecologically-friendly cellulose substance resembling papier-m‰chŽ. The two prototypes on display were beautifully decorated, one covered in gold leaf and lined with ostrich feathers and the other a deep blue with stencilled doves. These coffins are currently for sale at an average price of £290 (plus £20 for delivery) although the gold leaf coffin would sell for about £500. (37 Western Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 1AF, tel 01273 746011, fax 01273 734160; e-mail: hazel@ecopod.freeserve.co.uk)

Another exhibit, explained by Tony Bryan of Kent Casket Industries Ltd, was a self-assembly, solid pine coffin. This was simply made from factory-drilled panels which fitted together with biodegradable glue and apparently took about 10 minutes to assemble. It is available for £65 (plus £20 for delivery). (Kent Casket Industries Ltd, Channel Business Centre, Bouverie Square, Folkestone, Kent CT20 1BD, tel 01303 850856, fax 01303 221095; e-mail: kentcasket@aol.com).

Also displayed in the Centre's garden was the 'Cocoon' system, pioneered by Alan Goldingay of Celtic Caskets. This system involves using a traditional wooden coffin simply as a cover or cocoon containing an inner cardboard coffin. Only the cardboard coffin is cremated and the wooden outer coffin is reused, but the Cocoon helps maintain the appearance of a traditional ceremony. This system could bring down coffin prices whilst helping to reduce the present total of over 400,000 wooden coffins being wastefully cremated each year. (Celtic Caskets, 40 Monk Street, Tutbury, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire DE13 9NA, tel 01283 521 104; e-mail: bio.coffins@mcmail.com; web: www.eco.coffins.mcmail.com)

Inside the Natural Death Centre were displayed the artfully decorated coffins designed by Lisette de Roche. Although in keeping with the traditional coffin shape, these coffins had personalised exteriors, making them celebratory pieces - unlike the usual dark, mahogany monstrosities that hark back to the Victorian era. The coffins were painted with environmentally-friendly paints. Lisette de Roche's prices begin at £400. (164 Westbourne Grove, London W11 2RW, tel/fax 020 7221 8742, mobile 077 70 463 152.)

Emma White, all the way from Lands End, was exhibiting handmade funeral artifacts, including an urn balanced on a tripod of twigs and little ash shrines, watched over by clay people. These delicate, natural sculptures were made mostly from mud dug from Emma's back garden, bonded together using gum arabic, and were priced from £8. (1 Tol-Pedn House, School Hill Road, Trethewey, St Levan, Cornwall TR19 6LP, tel 01736 871800, mob 07790 203829; e-mail: saffyem@yahoo.com)

Tatiana Mallinson's small ash pots, painted blue and white with interesting lids, were designed to hold part of the ashes of a single person, for distribution to friends and family, and prices started at about £12. (67 Camberwell Grove, London SE5 8JE, tel 020 7703 8080, fax 020 7703 6550.)

Finally, Carol Aston of 'Bats in the Belfry' unveiled a spectacular Egyptian coffin, an example of the many coffins she hand-paints on commission. This particular piece resembled the coffins on display in the British Museum, with a stylised likeness on the lid of the woman who had ordered the coffin. Carol Aston also paints ash caskets and cardboard coffins. Prices for the ash caskets begin at £45, cardboard coffins at £195, and regular coffins at £375. (The Studio, Wistanstow, Craven Arms, Shropshire SY7 8DG, tel/fax 01588 672199, mobile 0798 0044798).

(For further details of the exhibitors and their work see The Natural Death Handbook, 3rd edition, which was launched on this Day of the Dead. The 4th edition of the book can be ordered for £15.50 1st class by credit card from the Centre by phone or securely online via www.naturaldeath.org.uk)

Awards and green funeral workshop

Framed awards were then presented to the winning cemetery and crematoria managers, funeral directors and woodland burial ground owners, who each spoke a little of why and how they thought their establishment excelled. BBC Radio 5 had announced these awards that morning as the 'Funeral BAFTAs'. Of the national award winners present, Roger Gillman of J. E. Gillman & Sons in Tooting, London SW17 (tel 020 8672 1557) won the best Funeral Director in the UK award; Ken West of both Carlisle Cemetery and Carlisle Crematorium (tel 01228 625310) won both the best Cemetery and the best Crematorium in the UK award; and Alan Goldingay of Celtic Caskets (see above) won the best Cardboard Coffin Supplier in the UK award.

The presentation was followed by a seminar where various questions covering the pros and cons of woodland burial were asked mainly of Ken West, a pioneer in this field. Ken West advised that woodland burial was both ecologically and economically friendly. The maintenance costs for regular cemeteries are such that they barely break even, let alone make a profit, whereas woodland burial grounds require a fraction of this expensive maintenance. He also advised growing trees and wild flowers from local seed as against bringing them in from other areas (which could adversely affect the delicate ecosystem).

Memorial tea salon

Play about the afterlife

The play highlights the inevitability of mortality and also the human tendency to believe it will never happen. The play concluded with an open discussion where everyone was asked to vote on whether they believed in a personal afterlife or a nebulous merging with a cosmic energy. The majority voted 'don't know'.

Elsewhere in the UK, the Day of the Dead was celebrated with Open Days at some woodland burial grounds. One of the best attended events was run by Peace Funerals at the South Yorkshire Woodland Burial Ground near Sheffield (tel 0114 2530505). Over 100 people came, there were display boards about woodland burial, wicker and other coffins on display and an opportunity for those who had pre-booked plots to plant a gorse bush on their site.

The media showed interest in the Day, the Awards and the launch of The New Natural Death Handbook there were two articles in the Guardian (April 6th 2000 and the April 17th 2000), interviews on BBC (Radio 4 and 5), at least five other radio interviews and seven other print articles.

It was altogether a successful and enjoyable day.