What is it like to let go? How does it feel, when YOU let go? What sensations in your body are you aware of? Are you taking a deep breath in and out? Do you feel tears of sadness or maybe tears of joy sculpturing your face? And, above all, how do you notice that you are ready to let go?

Autumn, and especially the threshold of November is the time of the year when many people around the globe slow down to reflect on the phenomenon of letting go. Many commemorate their friends, their relatives and their beloved ones, who had passed away. This day is celebrated across cultures in various ways and with different intensity. Its eve can be scary and spooky around the globe with little groups of dressed up ghosts and monsters greeting the persons opening the doors with a traditional “trick or treat” challenge on the Halloween. Letting go – regarding fear, letting go - regarding Summer, letting go – regarding people who are no longer among us…

What makes me curious about the festivities around these days is not only the variety of traditions but also the attitude towards letting go. Whereas my recent text focuses on celebrating El Dia de los Muertos in Mexico in my guest blog for https://blog.culturaldetective.com/2017/10/31/we-want-to-get-rid-of-you/ I have become a cultural detective regarding commemorating ancestors and forms of letting go. How and when we commemorate those who passed away is both – culture-bond and individual.

Where do you see the difference between bringing flowers and candles to the graves, dancing and sharing food on the cemetery and remaining home in order to worship the ancestors with a bowl of rice and incense sticks in front of their posters? How we let go and how we revive the past is a very sensitive part of our cultural identities. One important aspect of dealing with “letting go” is reconciliation. The end is never “the end” per se. At the same time it is a beginning.

Experiencing “letting go” recently in our multicultural team, I would like to share with you the hope of the new beginning and finding the ways for appreciation for everything that led to “letting go”.

So… what are you letting go today?