HONOURING OLD TRADITIONS | CREATING NEW ONES

“The departed they visit us in dreams.  They glide above our memories like shadows over streams.” 

– Quote on a headstone in Mountain View Cemetery

From 2005 – 2024, Mountain View Cemetery invited the public to come and remember their dead, in an atmosphere of contemplative beauty, whether buried at Cemetery or not. As a non-denominational sacred event, All Souls offered an opportunity for people to share their own customs and experiences, and create their own traditions.

After 20 years, Mountain View Cemetery – under the direction of the City of Vancouver – has decided to end its relationship with All Souls and the founding artists. In a statement they pledged to “ take time to review our protocols for supporting artist-led sacred events.”

This ending has not been our decision. We are sad and disappointed, specifically on behalf of the many people for whom All Souls at Mountain View Cemetery has been a cornerstone in their personal grief journey.

All Souls has become an important tradition for so many of us in the honouring of family and friends and feeling connected to community. Together we reclaimed and reimagined a part of our human culture, creating a container that held us all in community and common purpose. A temporary village.

We sincerely hope that people for whom it has become an important annual ceremony will keep their traditions alive in their own way, and continue to visit the Cemetery, especially at this time of year, to remember their beloved dead.

We hope the Cemetery will be responsive to future initiatives from artists and members of the public who value the importance of ceremony in our daily lives.

The greater Vancouver community has supported and participated in All Souls at Mountain View Cemetery for two decades. We are both honoured and humbled by the outpouring of gratitude and support for All Souls and the ritual work we have co-created.

Thank you,
Marina Szijarto and Paula Jardine

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