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
WHY DO WE PUT THINGS IN GRAVES WITH OUR DEAD? DR JENNIFER RILEY
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Dr Jennifer Riley is a research fellow in Divinity at the University of Aberdeen. Her current research explores grave goods in the UK today – the objects and items placed with people when they die, which almost certainly cannot be retrieved afterwards. She’s passionate about using her research to spark conversations about how the UK approaches death, the personalization of funerals and memorials, environmental considerations, and the concept of the afterlife in the modern world.
You can find Dr Jennifer here:
Facebook - just plain old Jennie Riley there
Instagram - @baggageforthebeyond
Linkedin (if you're so inclined) - Dr Jennifer Riley
X - JennieARiley1
Bluesky - @jen-studies-death.bsky.social
Dr Jennifer Riley FHEA
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow || Research Fellow
Divinity and Religious Studies || University of Aberdeen
Pronouns: she/her
Latest paper – ‘Why does funeral attendance matter? Revisiting ‘Configurational Eulogies’ in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK’ (Mortality, 2024): https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2023.2225029
University profile: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/jennifer.riley
Baggage for the Beyond: https://abdn.site/baggage-for-the-beyond
The Care in Funerals Casebook: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/sdhp/philosophy/care-in-funerals-casebook-2456.php
The Educating for Inclusive, Caring Communities Webpage: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/eicc
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