On Jan. 1, King of Life Lutheran Church in Coquitlam will be swinging in the new year while mourning the one just passed.
For the fifth straight year, the church is hosting a New Orleans jazz funeral at 2 p.m. on New Year’s Day.
The event is rooted in the Louisiana city’s funeral tradition, in which mourners making their way to the cemetery are accompanied by jazz musicians playing a mournful dirge.
Then, when the service is over, the music brightens to celebrate the deceased’s release from earthly bonds.
Kevin Yeates of the Creole Jazz Band, which will be featured at the service, said the first part of the event is accompanied by photos of major events from the past year projected on a screen that will allow mourners to reflect.
There’s also a box, representing a coffin for the previous year, at the front of the church.
Mourners are then invited to write down on a piece of paper some of the things they would like to bury with the past year.
“It may be something they wish they had done but didn’t do or something they did, but wish they hadn’t,” Yeates explained.
The slips of paper are placed in the “coffin” as the band plays a slow hymn and they’re ceremonially “cremated.”
Then, Yeates said, the music gets more lively and the celebration begins.
“The jazz style of the hymns has everyone singing with great enthusiasm.”
The funeral is followed by a tea where everyone gets to mingle and share their memories of the year passed and hopes for the year ahead.
Yeates said the event has become so popular, mourners come from all over Metro Vancouver to attend.
King of Life Lutheran Church is located at 1198 Falcon Dr.
Call the church office at 604-941-0552.
