Nurturing the Remains: A Ritual at Jean Shin’s Offering

Celebrate the Lunar New Year with Green-Wood! Join in to welcome the new year surrounded by Jean Shin’s Offering, a site-specific installation in the Cemetery’s entrance. Inspired by Korean tumuli burial mounds, Offering honors fallen trees as living ancestors and guardians of Green-Wood, transforming trunks, branches, and leaves into a living memorial. As these natural materials decompose, they nourish the soil and fuel new growth—a powerful symbol of renewal and new beginnings for the Lunar New Year.

This afternoon’s program begins with an introduction to Offering by Jean Shin and an overview of death education at Green-Wood by Gabrielle Gatto, Manager of Public Programs. Mudang Jenn, a Korean shaman, will then guide participants through collective rituals of reflective writing, gathering branches, and fire ceremony to acknowledge the Fire Horse year and the generative relationship between fire and earth. The ritual concludes with the placement and pulling of flags as blessings, symbolizing cycles of giving and receiving as we prepare for spring’s renewal.