A year blogging as a freelance archivist

Well, who would have thought that, huh? Certainly not me! Over the past year we have covered topics from hand creams to Halloween (which is coming up again pretty soon).  Art work to conservation work, diaries and cake! I did get a little techie from time to time with new tools such as ICA Atom and a new website (do check it out!!) . Also pleas for contacts in the conservation world and also exciting projects. I hope the next coming year and the installation of twitter will see the blog grow.

I hope you have enjoyed reading it all and do stay put for more posts! Also see below for my musings on archives.

Thank you for following :)

 

AG

OOOooo Halloween!

So it is today! All Hallows Eve where all the ghouls and spirits rise for just one night. But isn’t it just a way of having a celebration to remember those past? Okay so maybe now it has become commercialised and it is essentially American in origin. Yet many other countries have strong ancestral themed cultures. Take for instance the Mexican Day of the Dead (DoD). This is a day of celebration and fun where Mexicans remember the dead. This could be family members that died recently or even older ancestors. DoD is on Nov 1st which is ooh spookily close to All Hallows! DoD is being celebrated at the BM (British Museum) this Sunday. It is day packed full of activities for children. Please click the link for more information. http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/events_calendar/november/day_of_the_dead.aspx

Ancestor worship is practiced all over the world and it is an extremely old custom that seems imbedded in human nature. Nearly every country has some way or practice of remembering those before us. I have just highlighted one such other culture. It seems that before we had such easy ways of holding onto mementoes of ones we loved, or being able to archive our memories and rent space out to store things we may never need. It was an important day. And for this it is a much better festival than one has been led to believe. Just remember you don’t have to go in for all the trick or treating!

On the other hand if this blog post has not filled you full of horror please do click on the link to Ghost Sightings UK … eeek real stories!! http://www.ghost-sightings.co.uk/index.html