Be Ceremonial

Blog

This is where we share resources, rituals, education and stories from our community to showcase how ritual and ceremony can be woven into moments and milestones across the life cycle.

Showing 1–12 of 173 articles
Warm natural-light editorial photograph of a modern, everyday office during the workday. A small team of colleagues sits in a loose circle of mismatched office chairs in a meeting room with a glass wall, laptops closed and set aside, notebooks and coffee mugs on their laps. Seen from a high angle and from behind, only shoulders, hands and torsos visible, no faces visible anywhere. On a low table in the centre of the circle: a ceramic bowl of smooth grey stones, a single candle in a glass holder, and a few folded handwritten cards. One person's hand rests gently on a colleague's shoulder. Through the glass wall, ordinary office life continues softly out of focus: desks, monitors, a whiteboard, plants, a coat on a chair. Rainy Pacific Northwest light through tall windows. Muted earthy palette of oak, linen, sage green and warm grey. Documentary style, shallow depth of field, calm, human and unstaged, not corporate stock photography. No text, no logos, no readable writing on the whiteboard or screens.

Education ·

Creating Grief-Aware Workplaces

Grief comes to work every day ~ divorce, infertility, a diagnosis, a layoff. How ritual helps workplaces make room for it before a loss.

A group of people gathering on the beach for a grief ceremony

Education ·

What Is A Humanist Ceremony?

What makes a ceremony humanist, how it differs from a secular one, and why ritual still matters when you're not religious. By celebrant Megan Sheldon.

Dreamy, atmospheric wide photograph of a secular green burial ceremony seen from a distance across a sunlit wildflower meadow. The foreground is tall golden grasses and wildflowers in sharp focus (cow parsley, yarrow, fireweed, lupins) framing the bottom of the image. Beyond them, far away in the middle distance and softly out of focus, a small, multigenerational and culturally diverse circle of family and friends — people of East Asian, South Asian, Black, Indigenous, Latin American and white backgrounds, with a range of skin tones, ages and hair textures, an elder with silver hair, a child — gathers around a simple woven willow casket covered in flowers; one figure stands slightly apart, speaking with an open hand. All the people are small in the frame and softly blurred into impressionistic shapes and colours, mostly turned away or in profile — no faces or facial features recognisable, more mood than detail. Soft muted clothing in sage, cream, rust, dusty blue, ochre and blush. Behind them, a hazy line of cedar trees and soft mountains. Warm golden-hour backlight with gentle lens flare and glowing haze, airy, luminous, peaceful. No headstones, no crosses, no religious symbols, no black clothing. Mood: light, tender, hopeful, a celebration of life held in nature. Film photography, shallow depth of field, editorial, no text.

Education ·

Celebrant or End-of-Life Doula?

A celebrant is hired for a day, a doula for a season ~ mostly. Clear definitions, typical scenarios, and where the two roles overlap.

A circle of red adirondack chairs surrounding a fire pit

Ceremony Stories ·

A Birthday Celebration of Life

Aimee missed most of her husband Tom's first celebration of life. With Be Ceremonial's help, she created a do-over Celebration of Life on his birthday for 128 people.

A writing desk seen from above with handwritten pages, a fountain pen, a cup of tea and old family photographs spread out

Education ·

What Does a Celebrant Actually Cost?

An honest look at celebrant fees in Metro Vancouver ~ what the range is, what you are actually paying for, and what to ask whoever you hire.

Three beeswax candles on a weathered wooden table, each burned down to a different height, the last one still lit

Education ·

Why One Ceremony Is Rarely Enough

A birth doesn't happen in a day. Neither does a death. Why some passages ask to be marked as an arc of ceremonies rather than a single gathering.

Danielle's ceremony space on the Toronto waterfront before her brain surgery

Ceremony Stories ·

A Ceremony Before Brain Surgery

Danielle shares how she used Be Ceremonial to create a ceremony to release the grief of losing her job and set intentions for her upcoming brain surgery.

Lisa Hemingway's family gathered for the death anniversary ceremony for her dad

Ceremony Stories ·

A Death Anniversary Ceremony

With the help of Be Ceremonial, Lisa Hemingway created a yearly ceremony to acknowledge her dad's death anniversary after he died from cancer.

Long-time friends together — the sacred nature of friendship

Our Rituals ·

The Sacred Nature of Friendship

When was the last time you celebrated a friendship anniversary? Have you ever marked the day you met a friend who would go on to change your life?

Rituals for grieving this holiday season

Dates & Events ·

Welcoming Grief Into Holiday Traditions

Learn how you can welcome grief into holiday traditions and rituals, creating space for grief to breathe and your nervous system to reset.