Turning the Page

There have been many new traditions for me here in Belfast. One that I think that you might find interesting would be New Years' Eve services. Now when they occur at 11pm, they are called Watch Night Services. I on the other hand, went to East Belfast Mission's Fading of Light service which is held at 3:30pm. To put it into context, it is quite dark by 4:30pm. In previous years the service would celebrate the setting of the sun on the last day of the year. This year was quite a bit different. When I walked into the church that afternoon, I saw five caskets at the front near the pulpit. At that point, I thought that I had come at the wrong time and walked in on a really tragic funeral. After I took a minute, I realized that these caskets were the remains of the people that were buried near the church. They had been dug up because they had been previously covered over after the blitz when the church was rebuilt. They also walk behind the hearses after a funeral to their final resting place but in the past it would have been only men. This time the whole congregation walked behind the five hearses till we reached the undertakers office down the road. It was a surreal experience for me as I was not expecting to ever walk behind a hearse.

The video gives a visual to what I just mentioned and if you look closely, you can find me in the video.

Word of the Week: Scundered - has lots of meanings but normally has been used when someone was surprised