Do we need a Celebration Day for people we have lost?

Professor of Islamic and interreligious studies, University of Edinburgh

I think the intention of Celebration Day is good. But honestly, I think we already have too many days to celebrate too many things. I think what’s more important is that we talk about death in a meaningful way – that the language of death, of illness, of human frailty, is weaved into normal conversation.

In the West generally, we still see death as quite a taboo and scary subject. Even for those of us with faith, who think we know what’s going to happen after death, there’s still a sense of the unknown.

In traditional cultures, death is very much a part of life. People die in families and homes and they’re surrounded by certain rituals – it’s something that happens sometimes in front of you, as opposed to something that happens elsewhere. It’s not the end of something, it’s the beginning of something new.