Laughing into the grave during the open day of this funeral organization

“It’s quite comfortable actually,” says Babbe Schuiten as she has just descended from a freshly dug grave and lay down in an open coffin. She is not the only one who takes a seat in the coffin via a ladder. Many people want to experience what it feels like. To reassure you: the coffin is not closed now, but remains open.

“I’m lying comfortably, but it’s a different setting now, with those rustling trees.” Iris is also lying in the coffin with a big smile. “It is a very strange sensation, but a great opportunity to experience it.” She doesn’t find it scary at all. Meanwhile, gravedigger Willem takes a Polaroid photo of her in the coffin. “I hope it will be a while before I actually get into this,” says Iris as she gets up again.

Friend Marleen Aarts also thinks the coffin looks great. “It’s a bit narrow, but it’s comfortable.” She was also curious to experience what it was like to lie in a coffin.

Grave mood
Wim Redde thinks differently. “I do this when I’m cold. I’ll wait a little longer.” An older couple looks over a hedge at the hole in the lawn. “You won’t get it yet,” the woman says as she shakes her husband’s arm. “I’ll take you home with me.”

There is great interest in the burial. After fifteen minutes, gravedigger Willem has to change the roll of the Polaroid camera. “I actually didn’t expect people to fall into this so easily.” There is therefore no question of a grave mood at all. Rarely has he heard so many jokes at a burial pit.

Zuylen funeral organization celebrates its bicentennial this year. That is the reason to open all doors and gates and to set up the special grave action. “You get a different perspective on life by lying in a grave.” Foundation director Roel Stapper admits that it is ‘a special campaign’. “But on a day like today it should be possible, it is a very relaxed atmosphere.”