The pandemic has fundamentally changed how we live and understand loss. It’s also impacted, often heartbreakingly, how we grieve. So many of us have experienced the death of a loved one back home or elsewhere in the world during the last few years. These significant losses were amplified by pandemic regulations and travel restrictions that did not allow us to say our goodbyes, attend funerals in person or gather with family and friends as we would typically do at a time of loss. This takes a toll on us, often leaving us feeling isolated, disconnected, or alone in our grief and without a sense of natural closure.
These feelings may be significantly heightened as we enter another holiday season away from loved ones we miss.
The Annual CCS Grief Memorial Gathering is a unique event where we, as a community, will come together to share our individual and collective grief.
CCS invites you to the annual Grief Memorial Gathering on Thursday, 1 December, atthe Being Art Museum (碧云美术馆，红枫路135号）in Jinqiao. It is FREE community event.
We invite anyone grieving the loss of a loved one, whether very recently, in the past few months, or the last years, to join us for an evening of live music, candlelight, time for reflection, and the opportunity to connect with others who may also be grieving.
Guests will have the opportunity to contribute and expand on the community art project, initiated last year, by adding their fingerprints as leaves on a tree with the name or initials of the loved one they are grieving. Haruka created this tree and has been displayed at the CCS Pudong Center as an enduring tribute to those we have lost and remember.
This year we will create a Memory Table where guests can display pictures or special trinkets that remind them of their lost loved ones. There will also be a Memory Jar, a creative activity designed to pay tribute to our loved ones.
The incredibly talented YCIS Pudong students will provide the musical performances for the evening.
We dream that this service will be a milestone in the healing process for those who attend, and will help us draw closer together as a community as we continue to support one another through these difficult days.
