A Night for All Souls: An Interview with Paula Jardine

OCTOBER 27, 2010

A Night for All Souls is a yearly event held at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, BC.  Returning for its sixth year  'A night' provides opportunities for the public to commemorate their dead in a family oriented community art event. Activities this year include a popular sugar skull crafting workshop, music, candles, the serving of tea, and the opportunity to create personal memorials.  Visual and performing artists come together with members of the community to share and contribute to this wonderful event.  Paula Jardine, Mountain View Cemetery's Artist in Residence, and the creator of this event has graciously agreed to discuss this project on The Daily Undertaker

2007: credit Claire Alexander - Chinese altar 8237 : Walter Quan demonstrates his family's way of honouring the ancestors with food and incense offerings, and folding joss paper and burning it. There is a lovely casual exchange of different customs with people who drop by, and it's also an opportunity for non asian people to feel welcomed to learn and participate

Pat McNally: In your work with A Night for All Souls, you have created and facilitated many wonderful ceremonies and rituals acknowledging our dead and the loss we experience in their passing.  What specific personal and community needs does this festival address?     

Paula Jardine: The Night for All Souls grew out of work I had been doing with Marina Szijarto- who I work with closely on this event. Really what we were trying to do was reclaim traditions that our own ancestors seemed to have forgotten to pass on to us. We may not live in the village where our ancestors are buried, but that human impulse to remember the dead – as a way of keeping them in our lives – is still there.  It seemed to us that artists have an important role to play in the sacred life of our increasingly secular society: that even if someone is not religious it doesn’t mean they don’t have spiritual needs.   The biggest gift of the night for all souls is I think the social aspect; except at funerals or memorials, we do not invite conversation about death and it’s presence in our lives. At this event, we are surrounded by people who, simply by being present, have acknowledged that they share that experience.  People create memorial shrines, or write messages and names on prayer flags, or the memorial triptych that Marina has created, and we can see that we are not alone. We inspire each other with our words, and with the beauty of our creations. It is a very supportive environment- not somber, but definitely caring and gentle.  

Infant area cradle, Haruko Okano
photo credit: Claire Alexander

PM: One of the really remarkable and inspiring parts of A night for All Souls is that many different cultures, faiths and traditions are incorporated and welcomed.  Is there something universal that we can all relate to in this?  Could this be a model for how we engage and relate to others?   

PJ:   Well death is definitely something that all cultures share!  I believe that culture is a living thing, not static; by bringing our own traditions and sharing them, we influence each other and something new is made.  It’s something that may be truly Canadian, that willingness to share culture and allow it to transform to meet our needs. 

We chose this time of year because it is traditional in so many northern hemisphere traditions, all soul’s, all hallows eve, Celtic New Year.  And there was also discussion about how “under siege” the cemetery is around Hallowe’en, and a sense that by reinforcing the sacred nature of the cemetery it would make it safer.

Triptych: Marina Szijarto
photo credit: Claire Alexander

We initially thought this event would appeal to people without a strong cultural or religious tradition, but we are finding that many religious people of different backgrounds also come: perhaps death, being the great equalizer, is also the light of truth, that is, it illuminates the central tenant of all the religions, which is Love.  

PM: Children experience death just as the rest of us do, but they often lack the communication skills and perspective that can help adults share and move through their grief.  What can an experience like participating in All Souls give to children?

PJ: I think it has a normalizing effect.  We were just talking about that at our Sugar Skulls workshop (another borrowed tradition that people have been making their own) and how having a traditional time set aside to talk about death, and those who have come before us, creates an opportunity for children to understand that they are part of a continuum, and that death is a natural part of life.  Importantly, it introduces children to the idea of death when it is not a calamity.   We have beautiful paper and votive candles and flowers for the creation of personal memorials at the event as well, and we’ve found we don’t have to explain that to children, in fact they seem to inspire the adults.

Friend: Nicole Dextras
(chinese pavillion in background)
photo credit: Claire Alexander 

PM: The intersection of Art and Death is a major theme on The Daily Undertaker.  What are your thoughts about the role of art in grasping and dealing with the sometimes overwhelming and unknowable reality of our mortality?

PJ:   Art allows us an opportunity to disengage our rational mind and swim in the poetic. The expression of our feelings through art can be therapeutic both for the creator and the viewer; simple gestures can be cathartic and help us heal.  One year artist Nicole Dextras created a memorial to a friend with ice letters: the letters melted throughout the evening as a visible expression of the impermanence of our own lives; another artist created a wooden ship that was also a flying phoenix, to carry the memory of her father:  the works of the artists who create things for all souls uplift us all to greater heights of beauty and expression.

PM: Throughout human existence, the places of the dead and the places of the living have alternately been shared and separate.  In bringing the living into Mountain View Cemetery through arts and cultural events, our perception of these places, and our place within them changes.  What are your thoughts on the separation and bringing together of these two worlds?

PJ:  When I first approached the manager, Glen Hodges, the cemetery was going through a major renewal, driven by a public process that established a master plan for regenerating interment space.  One of the things that surfaced in the public process was a desire for public and community arts in the cemetery: A Night for All Souls addresses a community need to feel engaged with the cemetery; and to claim it as an active public space.  My feelings about that are best expressed by this quote from Maria Papacostaki’s book, "The Town of the Forty Churches" : 

“ ...so they slept their eternal sleep, resting assured that those left behind would continue looking after them according to their traditions and familiar ways, because every one of us will end up in the same place and all of us long to know that after we have crossed the dark river, we are still loved, and remembered and looked after.”

Phoenix: Tamara Unroe
photo credit: Claire Alexander

PM: What do you think our culture would look like if more artists were engaged to be civil servants?

PJ: Artists are creative problem solvers; I do actually think that it should be policy to have an artist on every team within the city structure, especially in engineering.  There would be less emphasis on doing things for purely practical reasons, so there would be more whimsy. We might have more beauty in general, and roads might be less straight (or maybe they would be invisible!)   And artists know how to stretch a dollar, that’s for sure, so we might even have less debt load! 

Here is a schedule of this year's activities.  For more information visit Mountain View Cemetery Saturday - October 30th 6pm - 10pm

The 6th Annual Night for All Souls

Music, Candles and Flowers

Sunday - October 31st 7pm - 8pm

The Threshold Choir

The all-women choir honours the ancient tradition of singing at the bedsides of people

who are struggling: some with living, some with dying.

Monday - November 1st 7pm

A special showing of the film: A Family Undertaking - Home Funerals in America

Tuesday - November 2nd 6pm - 9pm

Tea in the evening

Events take place in Celebration Hall, 5445 Fraser Street at 39th Avenue


For more on Mountain View Cemetery, please visit my interview with Cemetery Manager, Glen Hodges

Making Cemeteries Relevant, Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver

Previous installments of this series have explored the importance of cemeteries for the maintenance of emotional and historic bonds, ways that cemeteries have adapted to the changing needs and values of families, and the ways that art and cultural traditions enrich the cemetery. Part 5, will take a look at the exciting revitalization taking place at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Owned and operated by the City of Vancouver since 1886, Mountain View Cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in the metropolitan area. The cemetery is made up of 106 acres of land and features beautiful views of the city and coastal mountains. With over 90,000 grave sites and 145,000 remains interred already, this property had run out of grave sites and was in danger of losing its future.

Following an ambitious revitalization program including an award winning construction project, the cemetery now has a renewed involvement with its community, and for the first time in over 20 years, new spaces are available for purchase. This investment has given Mountain View back it’s future, and showcased the importance of its history. Cemetery Manager, Glen Hodges has graciously agreed to discuss the changes at Mountain View, a wonderful example of making cemeteries relevant.

Pat McNally: In 2000, the city of Vancouver launched a plan to revitalize the historic Mountain View Cemetery. Now, 10 years later, the cemetery is a model for what can be done to make a cemetery relevant. The team at Mountain View has created wonderful new spaces, has engaged the community in activities and discussions, has showcased contemporary arts and facilitated the appreciation of the historical significance of the cemetery and its residents.

What was this process like, and what made it so successful?

Glen Hodges: The process was many things including long, challenging, invigorating, scary, exhilarating, anxious, difficult, etc. Maybe it can best be summarized in one word – monumental (pun intended). The success of our process relied on a number of factors including the many people with a keen interest in making it a success, the City of Vancouver’s desire to be a leader in many things that they do (planning, urban development, the environment etc.), our high cremation rate (>75%) and certainly the unique market conditions in Vancouver – cemetery space here has a higher market value than in most of the rest of the country.

The idea of a cemetery chapel is nothing new, but looking at your Celebration Hall, there is obviously a qualitative difference between this space and traditional chapels. What were the ideas behind Celebration Hall, and how has the space worked out for you so far?

The idea from the very beginning was to create a ‘sacred space’. We were determined to build a facility that was not like any other funeral chapel. The architects and I toured many facilities and were driven to create something that was not ‘residential’ in style or scale. We saw many local facilities that were just like a nice living room - only bigger. We wanted our space to be distinctly different – high ceilings, simple, clean and with very controlled views and courtyards. The result is a very private, contemplative place in the middle of a large active cemetery.

Celebration Hall accommodates screenings and concerts as well as memorial services. What role do you think the arts have to play in a cemetery environment?

I think the arts can, and should, play a much larger part in cemeteries, funerals and other aspects of death - and life. Artisans clearly played a significant part on the commemorative aspects of cemeteries in the past – I am thinking of the monuments that were carved by hand by craftsmen with years of experience. Historically local artists in the community would have participated in may other ways as well – singing, providing music, arranging flowers, and creating memorial items for the funeral or for remembrance after. We have slipped away from these informal community resources to more commercial variations. The experience I have had in the last 6 years with local Vancouver artists has been eye-opening – they are a tremendous resource in ways I never even imagined; providing live acoustic music on the harp, violin, or marimba to vocals, hand made urns, memorial lanterns and shrines.

At your Cemetery Forum in April, you sponsored and participated in very important discussions about palliative care, death and dying, the generational importance of cemeteries, and the arts. Please tell us about this forum and what its goals were.

Since the early planning of the Celebration Hall there were ideas of hosting talks that were directly (or even in-directly) related to the cemetery. This symposium was our first attempt to do just that – bring people to the cemetery to learn about death and dying. We started with a thought provoking video about home funerals in the US. This was a great way to jump right in to the some of the very technical challenges of dealing with a deceased person. The morning sessions then focused on providing basic information on what hospices, funeral homes and cemeteries provide. It was definitely not presented to be a sales pitch but more along the lines of “things you should know and consider before you are faced with the inevitable”. The afternoon sessions built upon the basic knowledge and expanded people’s thoughts toward green burial options and the role of artists in meaning and ritual.

You have made a public commitment to increase outreach projects to the community. Do you think that Funeral directors and Cemeterians have a responsibility to inform and educate the communities they work with?

Cemeteries are historically excellent at establishing bylaws and rules about what you cannot do in the cemetery. These are all nicely documented and some cemeteries even post certain excerpts on signs within their property. However, I think we have great room for growth in providing meaningful and important information to our communities before they become clients or visitors. It is easy to inform the people that we come in contact with directly – the pre-need person or maybe the one or two family members making at-need arrangements – but the challenge is getting information to the other people who attend the cemetery service. Maybe even more importantly, what are we doing to reach out to the people who think they don’t need a cemetery – “just scatter my ashes”? How do we reach them so they can consider the impact of their choice on the friends and family that will be left to grieve after their death?

Vancouver enjoys a great cultural diversity, and your cemetery reflects this richness. Many of the ethnic ‘neighborhoods’ have developed organically within the cemetery over the years, but are there any programs or initiatives to celebrate various traditions or spaces created to appeal to different groups at the cemetery?

This was a large part of the thrust behind our first Night For All Souls event in 2005. The artist who came up with the concept, Paula Jardine, was very insightful in borrowing from many cultures and religions, primarily with regard to their various traditions around All Saints Day, All Souls Day and The Day of The Dead. She was very deliberate in trying to create an environment at Mountain View Cemetery that shared some of these other traditions with the public but also in a way that allowed the public to bend, twist and borrow from those traditions the things that resonated with them and then to make them their own. She summed it up greatly the day after the inaugural event when she said that in effect, we were making our own (new) culture! Or at the very least, new cultural traditions.

I see that the cemetery has an accommodating policy allowing dogs on leashes. This policy is communicated by some humorous signs! Can you share the story behind these signs and your policy with us?

The position on dogs is primarily a City of Vancouver position – except for designated off-leash parks dogs must be on a leash and controlled by their owner at all times. The cemetery started seeing a large increase in the amount of dogs – especially off leash dogs – in the mid 1990’s. This was a decade after the sale of graves was ceased in 1986 and at a time when the City was considering selling the site to private operators. Once the local dog owner population had established the cemetery as their ‘unofficial’ off-leash park we had a struggle trying to get that genie back in the bottle. About a year ago one of the management staff and her husband had an encounter with a less than cordial dog owner one day. Her husband was aware of a neighbouring municipality that erected ‘camel crossing’ signs in an area prone to speeding - in an effort to slow traffic. The sign worked. He applied the same logic (and humour) to our off-leash dog problem and our no elephant signs were the result. We sent a complimentary sign to a writer from the local paper and ended up with two follow up articles supporting our case and assisting with the communication of our problem.

Bicycles are an issue at many cemeteries these days. Some administrators argue that cemeteries are not playgrounds or thoroughfares, but others go so far as to encourage the bicycling community to bring their activity in to the cemetery. What are your thoughts and policies on bicycles in the cemetery?

Bicycle use in Vancouver is a very current topic. For many years Vancouver has had designated “Greenways” throughout the city – residential roadways that have been partially closed or ‘calmed’ with measures such as speed bumps or roundabouts – that are intended for bike use. One of these ‘greenways’ bisects the cemetery and a result we have a large amount of bicycle traffic through our property. Cycling, jogging, walking – all of these activities are encouraged uses of the cemetery. My concern has always been more with the person’s intent rather than their action. If they are not meaning or causing any harm or disruption I see no concern with cyclists cruising through the cemetery.

Coming up later in July, the cemetery is hosting an Open House featuring a variety of tours, activities and presentations of cultural and historical interest. I applaud you for involving your community in this way. What do you see as the benefits of this involvement – both for the cemetery and for the community?

Much like the symposium on Death and Dying we hosted earlier this year, the Open House is another opportunity for us to invite the public to the cemetery for something other than a funeral. It’s a chance for us to show off our facilities, create a light atmosphere with acoustic music and engage the public to find out more about this mysterious (not-so-scary) place that they all avoid entering. Last year we advertised people to bring a picnic, this year our Artist in Residence will be helping visitors build small kites that will fly without running and with very little wind. I suspect some people may even make their kites a memorial to someone they have lost. We will also be opening up our works yard for people to take a peek at some of the equipment we use to maintain our 106-acre site. This is also a great opportunity for the field staff to engage with the public and share some of their knowledge and expertise. It allows the field staff to more fully participate and share in the success of our redeveloped cemetery. Since we are not open on weekends it also allows us the opportunity to provide additional service to people who cannot come by during weekday hours. The more we can do to make our cemetery a place for the living today, the better chance they will see us as an important place for their loved ones in the future. We want to make it comfortable for them now, so it can provide comfort to them in the future.

Part of the City’s goal in revitalizing the cemetery was certainly an effort to increase the lifespan of interments and allow for new revenues to finance maintenance of the grounds. A result of this was adding new space for cremation interments. What design attributes and decisions went into the creation of these spaces?

Much like the buildings, our design team was not satisfied with the examples that existed in the market place. We set out to create our own vision for what columbaria could (or should) be. This vision also extended to the surroundings that support the cremation spaces. You cannot just purchase a columbaria and plop it down in the middle of an area and call it complete. Well, I guess you can - because that’s what many cemeteries do. However, if you spend some effort on the context or the landscape surrounding the columbaria, you can amplify the impact and really make it an attraction. In our design we pursued a number of objectives and ideals. We were extremely impeded by a lack of space. The cemetery had essentially run out of room in 1986 when graves sales were ceased. We were now left trying to close a few remaining roadways and squeeze these new developments in between the existing graves. Our measurements came down to the millimeter in some cases. At the same time, we were very conscientious about density. Cramming every little last piece of space and converting it to a ‘saleable’ product would negatively impact the entire development and detract from the cemetery – not add to it. With very little space, and almost no public space within the cemetery, we identified two areas where we could actually create some public spaces – with no interment options encroaching the areas. We ended up with reworking an old abandoned fountain in to a much larger fountain and created an entirely new water feature on the other end of the area. We were also careful to create many varied physical and visual entity points throughout the plan so that you never had a sense of being walled, trapped or hidden. Finally, we set out to solve three challenges we had with most of the prevalent columbaria design at the time: why are the niches always arranged in straight rows and columns just like a checkerboard? There must be a better way to attach the niche panels that using the outer rosets? And families clearly want to leave something at the cemetery when they come but on columbaria, unless you glue a bunch of vases to the outside, people are left to clutter all their items at the bottom or else trying to tape/glue/wedge or insert them in-between the niche panels making the whole place look cluttered and messy. In the end we came up with our own design that uses no rosets or outer fasteners to secure the niche panels, has the colums of niches offset – much like the way you would build a stone or brick wall and our design incorporated shelves under each row of niches so visitors would have a place to put their flower, pebble or other trinket when the came to visit.

Are there any cemeteries that you look to for inspiration?

Any cemetery I ever visit is an inspiration in some way. I can get ideas on things I like and things I would never do from any cemetery. When I first started managing a cemetery in 1996 I met Hans Seidenthal. Hans ran the municipal cemetery in Regina, Saskatchewan (my home town) for probably more than 30 years. Hans told me the first question he always asks another cemetery operator is “Show me your mistakes.” When I asked him why he said “So I don’t repeat them.” That has always stuck with me. Sometimes you can learn a lot from what you don’t like at other cemeteries. For positive inspiration the design team put me on to Carlos Scarpa’s cemetery work in Italy. If I am looking for artistic inspiration I am very envious of the work of the Forest Hills Educational Trust in Boston. On a more local level, my colleague Stephen Olson at Royal Oak Burial Park on Vancouver Island is my guide.

What do you see in the future for Mountain View? Are there any new projects on the horizon for this wonderful space?

The future for Mountain View is a steady climb from a forgotten, almost neglected site, to an innovative, thriving and sustainable cemetery that is engaged with the public. We are currently working on some customizable family columbaria units that will enable a family to vary the layout of the niches, choice of stone, incorporate cast glass elements, basalt shelves, built in planters and poetic verse, etc. We are also going to have our first official public art sculpture erected in the next 12 to 18 months. It will be a commemorative piece commissioned by a local ethnic group. I am still trying to expand our online interment listing (~150,000 records and growing) to include links to the marker/headstone image (>50,000 images taken and linked so far- but none online yet…) Oh… and our walking tour in August will be done on bikes!

That sounds wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing your story with us!

  For more information about Mountain View, please visit their site at the City of Vancouver, their YouTube Channel , the Calgary Herald Story on their Cemetery Forum, and the website of Artist in Residence, Paula Jardine.

To read the previous posts in this series, visit:

• Making Cemeteries Relevant: Feng Shui in Minnesota
• Making Cemeteries Relevant: Part 2, Innovation in Toronto
• Bicycles and Cemeteries: Making Cemeteries Relevant Part 3
• Columbarium Art Galleries and Cemetery Sculpture Gardens: Making Cemeteries Relevant, Part 4

originally posted July 2010

Summer So(u)lstice at Royal Oak Burial Park

Last October, I was pleased to share an interview with artist Paula Jardine about her All Souls Night project at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, BC.  That project tied in to the Autumn remembrance of the dead that is a part of many cultures.  Paula is one of the driving forces engaged in bringing communities back into cemeteries to experience moving and meaningful rituals and ceremonies, revitalizing themselves and these important places.

This morning I received news of another project of Paula's, this time at Royal Oak Burial Park in Victoria.  Royal Oak is another wonderfully innovative Canadian Cemetery that I highlighted in my interview with the Landscape Architect firm, Lees + Associates.  

Here is some information about this event, taken from the Royal Oak Burial Park site:

Royal Oak Burial Park in collaboration with local artist Paula Jardine will once again create a unique public event marking the beginning of summer. This will be an opportunity for the community to have a different cemetery experience.
Summer So[u]lstice at Royal Oak Burial Park will have 4 distinct but interwoven elements;
EXPLORE the history of the Burial Park on guided tours with Dave Obee local historian and author of “Royal Oak Burial Park – A History and Guide’.
MUSICAL ELEMENTS will add to the atmosphere as people move through and visit featured areas. Performers will include the ‘a cappella’ voices of Ensemble Laude; early music group Banquo; Harpist Alison Vardy; Spring Burke solo violinist; and Celtic musician Greg Joy.
FIND family members who may be interred at the Burial Park. Staff will be on hand to help locate gravesites and answer questions visitors may have about the Burial Park.
REMEMBER the dead, whether interred at the Burial Park or elsewhere, with unique floral tributes, personal poems, messages and paper prayer flags.
POETS Wendy Morton and Rhonda Ganz will recite and compose poems for individuals and small groups.
SEE the recently restored Art Deco Garden Chapel, the Woodlands green burial site, the expanded Terraces area with water features, and see plans for a new remembrance feature and cremation terraces.
PAULA JARDINE, a Victoria resident, is building on the popular success of the Night for All Souls, an event initiated by her as artist in residence at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver. “Inviting the public to the cemetery is a part of a reinvigoration of the role of the cemetery in the life of the community. It’s also a great way to introduce adults and children to the subject of death in a friendly social setting, where we can support each other and acknowledge death as a part of life.”
This event is suitable for all ages, and is wheelchair accessible

Follow this link for a map to Royal Oak Burial Park  4673 Falaise Drive, Victoria BC