Instead of spending Jan. 1 making lists of resolutions, nursing a hangover or taking an icy plunge into salt water, try something new this New Year's Day: a funeral.
Far from the typically sombre affair, however, the "funeral" at the King of Life Lutheran Church in Coquitlam offers a chance to lay to rest the regrets, concerns and cares of 2015, look ahead to 2016 and listen to some live Creole jazz music at the same time.
The mix of "delight and remorse" that comes with the end of one year and the start of a new one are why King of Life, as well as two other Lutheran churches, are hosting the New Orleans-inspired event, complete with a jazz band performing old-time hymns.
"It's a way for us to come together as a community, sing some great music to help us mark the end of the old year and the beginning of the new one," said Pastor Kathy Martin, who emphasized the free event is open to everyone, church-goers or not.
Kevin Yeates of the Tri-Cities-based Creole Jazz Band, which will be performing at the funeral, added the event will be a way to "find the beauty and meaning in life" and will likely be the first time anyone has heard a banjo played in church.
He broached the idea with Martin after learning about it from a Dixieland group he belongs to online. Yeates watched some clips of similar events and "thought it was a fabulous idea," and soon they were joining forces with Good Shepherd, another Coquitlam church, and Mt. Zion in New Westminster to organize it.
"I wasn't familiar with it so I've done a bit of learning as we've gone along here," Martin said. A New Orleans funeral would begin with slow, mournful hymns as the procession makes its way to the gravesite; the return trip, however, picks up with lively, almost celebratory music as more and more people join the group.
The King of Life service will start with similar music and, as people file into the church, they'll be given a piece of paper.
"They'll have an opportunity in this reflective space to write down the things they'd like to lay down," Martin said. Later in the service, everyone will be invited to "bury" their regrets in a memorial box and "go out with a kind of jubilant, clean slate into the year."
Yeates said the music will be an upbeat, swinging-style that everyone can sing along with, or just sit back and enjoy the spectacle of a trumpet, clarinet, trombone, banjo and tuba.
"Visually, it's pretty amazing… and it's a spectacular sound," he said. "It's uplifting to play and it's uplifting to listen to as well."
• Burying the Old Year: New Orleans Jazz Funeral is at King of Life Lutheran Church (1198 Falcon Dr., Coquitlam) on Friday, Jan. 1, from 2 to 3 p.m., followed by a light "funeral" tea.
spayne@tricitynews.com
@spayneTC
