Advice, guides & articles

National Grief Awareness Week takes place from 2nd - 8th December 2021, and is organised by The Good Grief Trust, a charity run by the bereaved for the bereaved, who bring bereavement services together to ensure anyone affected by grief has access to the support they need.

Add your free message on our Memorial Wall and create a beautiful tribute to loved ones this Christmas. Honour their memory today.

On 30th November it’s St Andrew’s Day! A holiday that celebrates the patron saint of Scotland and is Scotland’s national day. Here we will delve into why it’s celebrated and where it came from.

The new flexible style notice will be in a double column box as standard, doubling the width of current notices in the majority of our newspapers. Each notice will come with the option to personalise with a photograph and a border or symbol, making the notices more meaningful to the families whilst acting as a fitting tribute to their loved ones. The new flexible style notice offers more than 100 symbols and borders to choose from. The categories include flowers, football teams, sports, hobbies, candles, pets and the great outdoors. The symbols and borders will help capture the essence of loved ones, giving their notice a personal touch.

Thanksgiving is an annual holiday celebrated by a number of countries on various dates, usually in Autumn. Historically, the most well known versions of Thanksgiving were used to celebrate and give thanks for a successful harvest season, though modern Thanksgivings are used to be thankful for the preceding year.

White Ribbon Day takes place on 25th November 2021. If, like me, you're unsure what it's all about I have spent some time exploring White Ribbon Day, what it stands for, how you can get involved and the 16 days of proposed action to follow.

A eulogy is a remembrance speech that pays tribute to someone who has died. Eulogies are usually given at a funeral or memorial service, and tend to be delivered by or on behalf of someone who knew the deceased well.

If you need urgent help you can contact the Samaritans on 116 123 or jo@samaritans.org. Visit the website for more information about Alcohol Awareness Week, and how you can take part: Alcohol Awareness Week Thank you for reading.

Since the battlefields of ‘The Great War’ fell silent in 1919, Britain along with many other countries in Europe and across the world, has paused for two minutes silence on the 11th hour, in the 11th month; November. This day was known as Armistice Day until 1956 when the British Government, in honour of participants in both World Wars, officially replaced Armistice Day with the new Sunday Memorial day, fixed as the second Sunday of the month, known as Remembrance Sunday. Typically since then, countries observe the silence on the day, and again on Remembrance Sunday. The Sunday is often honoured with a Parade of Remembrance, usually culminating in a wreath laying Ceremony of Remembrance at the local Cenotaph or Memorial.

Social Media Kindness Day (SMKD) takes place annually on 9th November. SMKD was created to encourage people to be kinder to others when using social media. Sometimes people say things over social media that they wouldn’t say directly to someone’s face, as they cannot see the person’s reaction and the hurt and upset that can be caused by their words. SMKD was also created in memory of TV Presenter Caroline Flack, whose birthday would have been 9th November. The first Social Media Kindness Day took place on 9th November 2020. Caroline’s tribute page can be found here: Caroline Flack The goal is to make social media a kinder place, and to remind people that unkindness should never be tolerated, whether it is face to face or through a screen. How to take part in Social Media Kindness Day: