Routledge Handbook of Dark Events Celebrations, Heritage, and Customs of Death and the Macabre

Introduction

1 A play to banish the darkness: the domestication of death in Bulgarian folk traditions

2 Sacred shadowed pathways: Kūkai and the Shikoku pilgrimage

3 Rituals of remembrance: exploring mortuary and mourning rites among the Akan of Ghana

4 Nigeria Indigenous community and befitting burial for the deceased going-to-the-spirit land

5 Sacred sustenance: culinary death rituals and mourning events among Assamese Hindus and Christian Nagas

6 Commemorating the deceased through the Hungry Ghosts Festival in Hong Kong

7 Representing Samhain: symbols, semiotics and Halloween

8 Fact or fiction: Walpurgis Night and the commemoration of the victims of Germany’s witch trials

9 Italy’s martyrs for peace: representing suffering and patriotic sacrifice after the Nasiriyah Massacre of 2003

10 Re-enacting the Gulag: authenticity and commemoration of the Soviet penal heritage in Kazakhstan

11 Dark commemorative events and selective amnesia in Cambodia

12 Death, ritual and deification: examining the commemorative procession of Kerala’s iconic politician, Oommen Chandy

13 Ritual returns: commemoration, commodification and the evolution of UK Halloween festivals

14 ‘More like the first exhibition at a playhouse, than the solemnity of a Funeral’: spectating urban funeral events in late 18th-century London

15 Seeing justice done: a day at the Tyburn Fair in the long 18th century

16 At the dark edge of life and death: sin-eating rituals in Britain (1640–1900)

17 Shadows of the departed: post-mortem photography and mourning rituals in Victorian society

18 Immortalising the premature death: commemorating talented daughters in Ming-Qing China (16th to early 20th centuries)

19 Honour and sacrifice: the socio-cultural dynamics of Jauhar and co-cremation in medieval South Asian traditions

20 Manifesting ghosts and mimicking ghost hunters: media and the rise of ghost hunting events

21 Heroism to horror: the reception and transformation of the ‘blood eagle’ in popular culture

22 If they come, we must build it: popular culture, tradition and the Hollywoodization of Día de Muertos in Mexico City Bailey Ashton Adie and René G. Cepeda

23 Celebration, cultural appropriation, or something else? La Catrina, Barbie dolls, and Day of the Dead

24 La Santa Compaña: a demonstration of the literary and ritualistic richness surrounding death in Galician folklore

25 Navigating culture, religion, and controversy: the Penitensya rituals in the Philippines as a dark event

26 Death as a celebration of spiritual liberation: the controversial pathways of Aghorī Sādhus in India

27 Multivalent organised commemoration of the Great War: building transcultural memory with (embedded) fissures

28 Dark events and media controversies: Remembrance Sunday in the United Kingdom

29 The Dust Parlour: speaking to the dead

30 Death at play: celebration and memorialisation of motorsport’s dead

31 Eternal troupers: circus death memorialisation and community identity

32 Managing death rites and mourning rituals in the modern era: the evolution of Brazilian funeral rites

33 Managing collective memory through funeral events: an experience design perspective

34 Cultivating a death network through dark academic and pedagogical events

35 Managing Black Metal festivals

36 Managing event spaces and visitor experiences: entering liminal worlds at the Whitby Goth Weekend and Dublin’s Bram Stoker Festival

37 Managing subcultural capital dynamics for dark events: the case of the Moonlight Goth Music Festival (Italy, 2009–2011)

38 Murder mystery and mayhem: digging up the human stories lurking in 19th-century cemeteries

39 Considering the legacy of cultural genocide: commemorating the colonial expulsion of the Garifuna from their Caribbean homeland

40 Glocal perspectives on the dark heritage of Indigenous reconciliation events

41 Royal funerals as dark events: organisational and emotional challenges

42 Tea and hammers: new weapons in the battle with death anxiety

43 Glacier funerals as dark events of the Anthropocene

44 Bringing out the dead: body worlds exhibits as touchstones for reflection

Dark events and remaking our lifeworld: an afterword

Biography

Brianna Wyatt is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Tourism, Events, Entertainment and Attractions at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida, USA. She is also a Visiting Researcher for Oxford Brookes University, UK. Her publications, primary research interests and industry experience centre on interpretation and experience design in heritage and dark tourism. Brianna is a consulting academic, with her most recent work pertaining to interpretation and visitor experience development for penal heritage attractions in the UK.

Hannah Stewart is a cultural events specialist and PhD candidate at the Institute for Dark Tourism Research (iDTR), University of Lancashire. Her doctoral research critically examines Halloween heritage in Salem (USA) and Pendle (UK), exploring supernatural placemaking, cultural imperialism and the commodification of historical trauma through the lens of Dark Event Tourism. She has also designed, produced and delivered large-scale events across Canada, the UK and the Middle East.

James Kennell is the Head of Surrey Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of Surrey, UK, where he is also an Associate Professor in Events and Hospitality. His research explores issues associated with the relationships between the events, tourism and hospitality industries and society, and he has particular interests in the fields of policy and governance, political and protest events, dark tourism and exploration of events connected to conflict and tragedy.

Philip R. Stone is the Director of the Institute for Dark Tourism Research (iDTR) at the University of Lancashire, UK. He is an internationally recognised scholar in the field of dark tourism and ‘difficult heritage’ and has published extensively about the subject. Philip is also a Media Consultant on dark tourism, with clients including the BBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Guardian and The Washington Post.

"Readers of the Routledge Handbook of Dark Events will be challenged: about preconceived notions of why events are held to commemorate death, wars, and disasters; why people travel for ritualised and sanitised horror; why dark events and dark tourism have become mainstream. The contributors and editors of this reference volume have, in ten sections, systematically and provocatively covered the entire field as never before. They have achieved balance between theory and real-world examples, provided an inter-disciplinary approach that will appeal to many scholars and practitioners in diverse fields, explored ethical and practical issues, and created a landmark to both consolidate and advance these fields."

Donald Getz, PhD, Professor Emeritus, The University of Calgary, CA

"This outstanding Handbook elucidates the complexities of dark events and offers profound insights into people’s fascination with human suffering and death, and the commemoration of such phenomena through events and other touristic happenings. The book’s multifaceted perspectives on humankind’s interest in the macabre provide an excellent treatise on the hauntological outcomes of the performativity, ritualization, memorialization and heritagization of difficult pasts. A must-read collection!"

Dallen J. Timothy, Arizona State University, US

"Dark Events is a relatively recent yet fascinating and topical area of study and research. The editors’ innovative, new text expands the academic field of dark tourism, through the DET framework, to reveal the importance and centrality of events and festivals to this debate and their role as a global phenomenon celebrating and educating readers about mortality and the macabre.

Through a range of unique and novel chapters and event case studies, contributors explore themes such as celebration; tradition; representation; authenticity and commodification, bringing together the largest contribution of current thinking and insights in this area and extending the event studies literature.

Never has there been a time when a text like this was more needed and relevant to help us understand, contextualize and critique current political, cultural and psychological issues surrounding death and help us learn from what history has taught us."

Dr Jane Ali-Knight, Professor in Festival and Event Management, The Business School, Edinburgh Napier University, UK