Have a Little Cake and Coffee at the Death Cafe

A friend sent me an email earlier today saying she'd seen a sign in a local coffee shop in Berryville advertising a "death cafe." Yes, you read that right. It's the latest thing. Get together over coffee and cake and talk about death. One promoter of these events says she's "passionate about death."

The founder of the Death Cafe, Bernard Crettaz, organized the first one in 2004. He wanted to remove what he described as the "tyrannical silence" around the topic of death. Crettaz also wanted to renew the pagan tradition of the "funeral feast" in which "the living would renew their bonds while letting go of what weighed on their hearts." The tradition of the funeral feast has some bizarre elements and in some cultures includes animal sacrifice and practices to prevent the spirit of the dead from haunting the living.