Harolding

Harolding in Mount Pleasant Cemetery

author: Derek : Toronto, ON

Harolding involves spending one's time hanging around cemeteries taking in the ceremony of death. A neologism seemingly made for the Urban Dictionary, the term's etymology derives from the 1970s cult film Harold and Maude in which the protagonist's obsession with death leads him to frequent graveyards and attend the funerals of strangers. My initial exposure to the term came courtesy of Douglas Coupland's 1996 collection of non-fiction Polaroids from the Dead, in which he shares his youthful experience harolding in B. C.'s Capilano View Cemetery. Although the word was new to me, reading Coupland's narrative had quite the impact. For it was...

External Links

Harolding photos on flickr
Harolding posts on technorati