The Death Positive Roots of Halloween

Halloween was once intricately tied to a day when we actively engaged with death; and facing our own mortality was at the heart of the celebration.   

October 22, 2018 | Blog

BURYING THE ENEMY: THE NAZI GRAVES OF PORTUGAL

Funerals, archeologists claim, are almost as old as humanity itself. It is seen as a given that we will send our dead into the unknown with respect. But what if some people’s lives are beneath celebration? What if the body in the casket belonged to a violent criminal, or a terrorist, or a member of an oppressive political regime? Rafaela Ferraz tells a little known story about this very question. 

October 13, 2018 | Blog

Faces of Death: Katrina Spade

Our series, Faces of Death, showcases the death revolutionaries we are fortunate enough to work with here at The Order. This month, meet Katrina Spade, who is developing a new form of death care that transforms bodies into soil, so that we can return to the earth after we die. 

September 5, 2018 | Blog

Deathstagram

People are using Instagram in innovative and meaningful ways, especially when it comes to the subject of death. 

August 15, 2018 | Blog

Dying Queer in 2018

Guest writer, Daniel R Wilson, investigates what it’s like to die, queer, in 2018. 

August 8, 2018 | Blog

The Stained and Sordid Scene: The Dead of Antietam

The impact and legacy of the first photographs depicting the casualties of the Civil War, which “brought bodies and laid them in our dooryards and along the streets,” is examined in a new exhibit. 

August 1, 2018 | Blog

Am I too attached to a long-dead Portuguese serial killer?

While traveling through Portugal to research her country’s display of dead bodies, Rafaela Ferraz develops a unique connection to a pickled head in a jar, prompting her to consider our society’s fascination with, and even adoration, of serial killers. 

July 25, 2018 | Blog