Two years ago, author Virginia Lang stood poised over the toilet bowl, a goldfish in hand, when she was struck by the sorrow in her daughter's eyes at losing her first pet. She pulled back. Mother and daughter then performed an impromptu ceremony in the garden, placing a wildflower on the site and speaking about the loss of a friend.How to Bury a Goldfish instills meaning in the passages of everyday life. It melds many of the world's oldest traditions with contemporary celebrations, allowing people to honor life's events in tangible ways. Not a book of complex rituals with several elements, this is a collection of simple celebrations for anyone in the family. The suggestions are unusual and funny, like celebrating Thanksgiving "Tom Jones style", where guests sit on pillows and offer food to one another; they are beautifully simple, like reciting "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" to an older person on Valentine's Day; and they are spiritual, like explaining the symbolism of each object in a Kwanza celebration.