The Portland All Souls River Procession

With masks, lanterns, rattles and drums, we recognize the thinness of the veil at the Autumnal cross-quarter, acknowledged by different cultures around the world as All Souls Day, All Hallow’s Eve, Samhain, Day of the Dead, and other names. At this time when the Realm of the Dead lies close, we recognize those who have left us over the past year–both human and other-than-human.

The procession began at All Souls Day 2021 when our three event founders felt the weight of the Pandemic, and decided to use art and ritual to gather our community to honor lives lost, and tap into the healing power of nature in the riverside land where we lived and worked. We made paper lanterns from willow branches, and a reliquary to hold messages to the dead to ceremonially burn at the water’s edge. We read aloud the names of our beloved dead and made offerings of flowers and herbs to the river. And we carried a giant illuminated salmon to pass to a waiting kayak that bore it down-river and out of sight--a ghostly effigy to represent the river beings lost to pollution and industry.

In each of the first two years of the procession fewer than 60 people attended. By 2023 we had 200-300 folks join in. Then in 2024 attendance doubled to 600 despite a heavy downpour that delayed the procession by over an hour. Each time the people arrived with costumes, lanterns, and offerings to honor their own recently lost loved ones, and to recognize the global loss of human and non-human life through war, climate change and environmental degradation.

Although based in North Portland, the procession has generated interest throughout greater region, attracting friends and families, musicians and artists, community and cultural groups, people mourning loved ones, people grieving the state of the world, people who grew up with traditions of honoring their beloved dead in community, and people who would like to connect with such traditions, or keep such traditions alive. The event strives to create an opportunity for healing by bringing people together around the shared human experience of grief.

We invite people of any age, race, ethnicity or national origin, religion or spirituality, sex or sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, economic background, or ability/disability to attend as audience members, or to participate in both the procession and its creation each year. We also strive to create a Safe Space at our events and request that all Portland All Souls River Procession participants, collaborators and audience members be respectful of each other at all times, and mindful of each person’s needs, both in person and online.