The Macabray, a dance between the dead and the living, represents the idea that death could come at any moment. The Macabray doesn’t occur on a regular schedule and instead occurs only when specific flowers in the graveyard bloom. Likewise, a person can’t plan for or foresee their death—just as the Macabray that happens only when a certain flower unfurls its petals, death often comes unexpectedly and unfolds on its own timeline. It's also significant that it’s been 80 years since the last Macabray took place; this is close to the average lifespan in England and the U.S., where the novel is set, so it’s a reminder that death comes for everyone eventually.
But beyond just emphasizing that death can come at any moment, the Macabray also encourages those who are still living to enjoy life while they can. At the event, Bod dances with the living, not the dead, so it reminds him that he will soon have to leave the graveyard and make the most of his life—it’s not yet time for him to accept his death and join the ghosts permanently. In other words, because death eventually comes for everyone, and often unexpectedly, people must enjoy their lives while they can.
During the Macabray, the dead are able to leave the graveyard and intermingle with the living, which more broadly symbolizes the interconnectedness between life and death. The novel suggests that for humans, death is a fact of life, while for the dead, there may be life after they pass away. The two realms, the novel suggests, are intertwined. As a human who lives in a graveyard and has some ghostly powers (the Freedom of the Graveyard), Bod himself reflects this connection between the two spheres. The day after the Macabray, Bod is confused to find that none of the ghosts remember the event (or they perhaps do remember but are either unwilling or unable to discuss it). Likewise, the living participants (aside from Bod) don’t seem to remember it either. The fact that Bod alone remembers this dance between the dead and the living represents how he has a foot in each realm; he’s a living human but not quite a regular human, and he has ghostly abilities and lives in a graveyard but isn’t a ghost.
The Macabray (Danse Macabre) Quotes in The Graveyard Book
He straightened up, and looked around him. The dead had gone, and the Lady on the Grey. Only the living remained, and they were beginning to make their way home—leaving the town square sleepily, stiffly, like people who had awakened from a deep sleep, walking without truly waking.
Josiah Worthington said, “The dead and the living do not mingle, boy. We are no longer part of their world; they are no part of ours. If it happened that we danced the danse macabre with them, the dance of death, then we would not speak of it, and we certainly would not speak of it to the living.”
“But I’m one of you.”
“Not yet, boy. Not for a lifetime.”
And Bod realized why he had danced as one of the living and not as one of the crew that had walked down the hill, and he said only, “I see...I think.”
The Macabray (Danse Macabre) Symbol Timeline in The Graveyard Book
