Death, like birth, is an event which brings us up against the edges of our knowledge, up against one of life’s most profound mysteries. We wonder why people must die at all; we wonder what happens after we die. Is death a total ending or are we transformed in some way into another life? Death is the most ultimate experience we face and, as such, it is intimately connected to God or whatever it is that we call ultimate reality. Awareness of death causes people to turn back to face life with a totally different perspective. Concerns about death are an important factor in the development of religions.

The earliest humans buried their dead, often with something which might indicate that they believed the spirits of the dead would live on in some way. Cultures, such as ancient Egypt, placed a large amount of the energy and skills of their people into preparations for life after death, at least for royalty and the wealthy. In Christianity and Islam life is lived with the expectation of a lift after death. What kind of life that will be, whether a paradise or a hell, is determined by the quality of one’s life on earth. Eastern religions assume that one will have many lives though this is not necessarily positive. The goal of Eastern religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, is to eventually end the chain of reincarnations and ultimately unite with God in something like Nirvana or union with Brahman. All religions have ceremonies in connection with burial or cremation in which beliefs about life and death are expressed and the dead are memorialized.

Unitarian Universalists hold diverse views about what happens after death, from reincarnation, to some other form of transformation, to a belief that death is the end of any form of consciousness. But we generally have similar attitudes about the nature of death, as we can know it during life, and its rites. We have been in the forefront in changing society’s views about death toward a more natural acceptance, toward sensitive care for those who are dying, and toward simpler ceremonies which focus on the value of the life of the person who died.

Children have as intense an interest in death as they do in birth. Often their first experience is the death of a pet. Sometimes it is an older person, such as a grandparent or other relative, who is at at the end of a long life who dies. Occasionally their first experience with death is with other tragedies which are harder to explain.

Very young children may play "bang bang-you’re dead" or other such games without really knowing what it means, but true awareness of what death actually is can be a traumatic experience for young children. One primary age child, on learning what death really meant could hardly eat for several days. Some children deal with such concerns about death by role-playing dying; others make jokes. It is helpful for children to have adults who will openly and comfortably help them to talk about their concerns and who will answer them honestly and reassuringly. The story in this session aims to give the children a gentle introduction to death by placing it in the context of a person’s long and happy life. It also aims to connect death to the mystery and wonder that is God.

Connecting death with God is supported by our Unitarian Universalist principles which urge us to affirm the worth and dignity of every person, the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part, and by the source of our own experience of transcending mystery and wonder.