Tuesday, March 04, 2014

Death Cafe Coming to Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge

A cemetery in Cambridge will be the site of a cafe later this month, though just for one day.

According to the Mount Auburn Cemetery website, a "Death Cafe" will be set up in Bigelow Chapel on March 23, allowing people to "eat cake, drink tea, and discuss death" at no charge (it is part of a not-for-profit group). The cafe, which follows a model created by Jon Underwood of East London, is created to "increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives," and is not designed for grief counseling, as a bereavement group, or as an end-of-life planning event. The Death Cafe at Mount Auburn is sold out, but the site says that this is the first one at the cemetery, so it appears that there could be more at some point.

[March 18 update: The site says that while it is at maximum capacity, there is a waiting list for this weekend's Death Cafe.]

Death Cafes have been set up in North America, Europe, and Australia, with more than 600 created since 2011. Its website can be found at http://deathcafe.com/

Mount Auburn Cemetery is located at 580 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138.