Opening Ceremony Podcast with Jess May
Podcast blurb
Welcome to ‘Opening Ceremony Podcast’ with me, your host, Jess May.
I'm on a mission to keep ceremonies alive! Join me to hear all about why!
In the UK people are giving up on ceremony and I believe it is making us sick.
I don’t want that for you and that is why we’re here.
Ceremonies remind you that you belong here, you’re precious and you’re never alone.
I hope that this podcast will do that too.
On my podcast we connect with Academics, Professionals, colleagues, friends & clients share their life events, passions, careers and the ceremonies associated with them.
Ceremonies hold power to create meaning and are a vital source of connection and belonging for human beings.
As cultures evolve, ceremonies do too, how we approach that shift matters, because even as they disappear and change shape, they continue to hold power for both good and bad.
I want to empower you to create ceremonies which honour your values and remind you that you and yours belong in this world.
Good ceremonies tell your own story and help you to find your own meaning by reflecting who you are, healing you and showing you how much you matter.
But they can also be used in damaging ways.
If you don’t claim that power and choose your own way of celebrating your life and telling your story, someone else will do it for you.
Even as they fall from fashion, they will continue to matter to us societally, historically, personally & culturally.
There is never a time in human history where people don’t use them somewhere in the world for myriad reasons.
Focusing on ceremony shows us the interconnected multitude of human lives throughout history and across cultures. Ceremonies help us to hear those voices, their differences and similarities and understand the world-views behind the ceremonies they create.
Jess May is an Award Winning Celebrant who started her career in 2013 creating hundreds of life changing ceremonies for every occasion.
Join the Opening Ceremony constellation to learn more about why ceremonies still play a central part in human and animal societies.
Opening Ceremony Podcast with Jess May
Professor Howard Williams, Archaeologist of Death & Memory on Donkey Sanctuaries as memorials!
Howard Williams is an Archaeologist with a passion for The Archaeology and Heritage of Death and Memory - Past & Present
He is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Chester (2008–present). He specialises in mortuary archaeology and medieval archaeology as well as the history of archaeology and public archaeology.
He has a BSc in Archaeological Science, an MA Burial Archaeology and a PhD Archaeology.
His legendary Archaeodeath blog explores archaeology, mortality and material culture and is so engaging it is addictive:
This famous blog and associated social media channels with a huge online following on Tiktok, Instagram and Youtube (125.3k followers)
He creates more accessible, relevant and fascinating academic content for people like you and me than we could ever hope to absorb in one lifetime.
He challenges current narratives and discourse around tradition and identity and seeks to find facts where there are some, encourage us to admit when there are none and debunk myths were there are many.
He is also enormous fun!
Youtube: https://youtube.com/@archaeodeath?si=l9OJAHJauPIAX370
Blog: https://howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/
For journals, publications, academic articles and Howard's blog
TikTok: tiktok.com/@archaeodeath
Howard is a published author and you can find his books here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B06W2H14ZY/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=21a388b9-40e2-4ebe-8372-3ed6c5506745
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