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For those of us who lack the commitment and willpower to keep pets alive, plants are a perfect low-cost and low-maintenance alternative. And yet, somehow, many of us still manage to accidentally kill them.
It's not often we're given the space to properly grieve our plants, so one New Yorker is planning a mass plant funeral dubbed “Root in Peace” on April 19. For one day, New Yorkers will be able to say a final “goodbye” to their deceased flora and give them a second shot at life—as compost.
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The mass funeral, which will take place at 16 Orchard Street in a venue called Chinatown Soup, was conceived by Dohyun Lee, a 36-year-old art director at Orchard Creative. The idea for the event came to Lee after he took a long vacation and completely forgot about his snake plant, a species that is notoriously hard to kill. His negligence defied the odds, and his beloved snake plant died. Lee says he was just going to throw the it away, but something about that didn't sit well with him. “It felt weird tossing life out just because I didn’t take care of it,” Lee tells Time Out New York. “I decided to have a proper farewell, like an apology. It was a personal promise not to kill anymore plants in the future.”
When you enter the plant funeral, the first thing you’ll do is get one last portrait taken of you and your departed plant. All pictures will be printed, and you’ll write a eulogy. You can compare your dead plant story with other people’s, and take notes on what went wrong. Overall, though, the mood will be lighthearted, with DJ sets and a barista making coffee on site.
At the end of the event, each attendee with a dead plant will place their dead pet into a casket-shaped compost vessel. Lee will give each plant griever the tombstone of life, which is made from biodegradable ground newspaper that contains marigold seeds. If you water them properly, they’ll eventually grow into beautiful marigolds. “I told my friends it’s the best pet to have in this economy,” says Lee. “All you need is water and sunlight.”
You can RSVP to the free plant funeral event here.