The rituals of ancient Greece – especially public performances of tragic plays – have remarkable resonance with the current moment.
One of the most common reactions during a crisis is the urge to help others. Here a health-care worker watches as the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are delivered to a long-term care facility in Montréal.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
While the world is dealing with the biggest health emergency in more than a century, the way people have reacted to the crisis is familiar and predictable.
You don’t need rose-tinted spectacles to find joy – even in the most stressful times.
MEDITERRANEAN /Via Getty Images
Families who lost their loved ones during the pandemic could not even properly grieve. Greek epics show why lamentation and memorial are so important and what we can learn in these times.
Shiite Muslims attend a mourning ritual during the Islamic month of Muharram, in the central shrine city of Karbala.
Photo by Mohammed SAWAF / AFP) (Photo by MOHAMMED SAWAF/AFP via Getty Images
Millions of Muslims travel to Karbala in Iraq for one of the largest annual pilgrimages. The pilgrimage has adapted and changed over its centuries-old history.
A funeral director calls relatives of a COVID-19 victim for a virtual viewing before cremation on May 22, 2020 in New York City.
Misha Friedman/Getty Images
Religious scholars and faith leaders reflect on the death rites cultures have developed to honor the deceased, comfort the living and share the burden of mourning.
A lone visitor reads names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall during the coronavirus outbreak.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Shad Thielman, California State University San Marcos
Unlike those who died during the Vietnam War, those who perish during the current pandemic are unlikely to receive a national memorial. Perhaps they should.
Graveyards were important locations in Victorian life.
A piper plays ‘Amazing Grace’ as local residents look on during a local vigil in Wentworth, N.S., after the worst mass shooting in Canada.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Liam Hennessey
Virtual music vigils after the Nova Scotia shootings draw on a long tradition of Atlantic Canadian disaster songs and ‘broadside ballads’ to mourn in a time of social distancing.
Then – as now – Americans found themselves transfixed by the news.
International Center of Photography
In the absence of broad Canadian validation of the bombing of Air India flight 182 as being worthy of public mourning, creative artists have tried to illuminate the ongoing grief of families.
Many in the Western world lack the explicit mourning rituals that help people deal with loss. On Day of the Dead, two scholars describe ancient mourning practices.
The boxer’s death follows hard on the heels of David Bowie and Prince. The world is losing global icons and learning how to grieve using new and democratic tools.