Dutch funeral exhibition digs up the latest in death trends

AMSTERDAM — Coffins decked out with board games, grave sites doubling as vegetable patches or children’s toy “funeral building bricks” complete with a hearse and crematorium — just some of the latest trends for dealing with death.

More than 3,500 visitors flocked to a recent one-day expo at Amsterdam’s historic central Westerkerk church for a peek at new gadgets to help give a loved one a grand, final farewell.

From those wanting a unique burial for a relative or friend, to others with an appreciation for the morbid, there was plenty on offer, such as 3-D printed urns in the shape of a deceased person’s head.

A hollow walking stick, which can be filled with ashes that are then scattered at the touch of a button and registers the person’s final resting place via GPS coordinates, was another innovative exhibit.

Pulling in the crowds were the “funeral” small plastic building blocks for children to create their own hearse that comes with a coffin and a crematorium with imitation flames or a graveyard.

Far from just being macabre playthings, the toys have a very practical application.

“Often you find that children don’t understand the funeral process and what happens at a funeral,” said Richard Hattink, a children’s counselor, who specializes in dealing with grief.

“We found that using these blocks helps to include youngsters in the mourning process,” said Hattink, who painstakingly put together the miniature models, also used by some funeral parlors and crematoriums.

A myriad different coffin designs were also on display.

They included one incorporating a traditional Dutch game of shuffleboard where players slide the wooden pucks along the top of the coffin, and another casket shaped like a football boot.

Another was a mail-order coffin, which conforms to

Death should not be something sad. This expo shows that dying can be celebrated, rather than mourned. It is ... something that’s going to happen to all of us.” Peter van Schaik, exhibition organizer

Dutch postal standards and, once delivered, can be assembled by the family of the deceased themselves.

“It’s a coffin that’s easy to assemble. We often refer to it as Ikea-style,” Dingco Geijtenbeek said, referring to the Swedish household manufacturer known for its ready-toassemble furniture.

The idea of a funeral expo is “all about life, how you celebrate and say farewell to your life,” said organizer Peter van Schaik.

“All these objects we have are meaningful ways to expose a little bit about your personality and the way that you want to be remembered.”

As well as those on the lookout for novel ideas and people in the funerals’ business were visitors with perhaps just a gloomier sense of curiosity.

“We have a special interest in graveyards as well as ways in which people are buried and so we ran into this expo and thought, yes, that’s interesting ... let’s have a look,” said Ybert Gerritsen, 44, from the central Dutch city of Almere.

“Death should not be something sad. This expo shows that dying can be celebrated, rather than mourned. It is, after all, something that’s going to happen to all of us,” said van Schaik.