Hello Death and Dying fanatics – Welcome to Day #2 of Netherlands fun!
Today was an action packed day for us Dickinson students, faculty, and hosts. After an early morning wake-up call and breakfast, we drove to our wonderful hosts house that resides in beautiful country lands.
At the house we met ours hosts wonderful animals, including the beauty you see next to this text! Her name is “Peen” and is a Dickinson student fan favorite. Other animals on their property include beautiful coy fish, three majestic deer, some chickens, and a handsome cat named “Donnie”.
After a quick stop at the house, we made our way to a funeral home in the city “Breda” called Zuylen. Once there, we had a presentation from one of our hosts and then the director of this specific home, Roel. During his presentation, Roel explained some of the services the funeral home offers, which is everything from renting spaces for the viewing of the body/casket to beautiful family lounges where friends and family of the deceased can enjoy catered meals. Something really special about this funeral home is the emphasis it has on the families needs and wants – every family gets a key to the room where their deceased family member is being held and has full access at any time. Another special feature of this funeral home is the accessibility for its citizens – any religious denomination and income level is free to use their services. If someone is unable to pay for the minimum services they offer, the community will come together and raise money.
Embalming
Embalming is the science of preserving a a human body using formaldehyde to delay the natural process of decay after death. Formaldehyde is a well known carcinogen and requires regulation. The process of embalming the body of a deceased person is not allowed in the Netherlands. One must apply to the Ministry of of health to receive permission to do so.
Not only were we able to tour the grounds, which I will show below, but we were able to tour the crematorium on location. The picture next to me shows the some types of metal from the bodies that can be left behind after cremation – All crematoriums in the Netherlands send the metal out to be melted and ores harvested in order to raise money for different charities.
Zuylen specifically has a commitment to sustainability so they try everything in their power to lower the amount of pollution and waste of materials in their facilities. The coffins they use are moving away from plywood to other types of woods with no other chemicals that can leach into the soil when buried and they plant many trees and other plants on the grounds to give back to nature. In the Netherlands, they don’t use embalming techniques on the deceased bodies, instead opting to leave the blood inside the bodies – this also is more sustainable because the embalming chemicals can leak into the soil and contaminate them. The last fun fact about Dutch cemeteries is that they most commonly rent out plots for a certain number of years before they reuse them for another person! Below are some pictures taken when we were given a tour of the cemetery grounds:
Roma Burial Plot 
Vincent Van Gogh Inspired Section 
Statue of an Upside Down Tree in Nunery Plot 
Beautiful Gravestone Design with Organ Player 
Person’s Ashes Spread Out on the Grounds
Once our fantastic tour was over, we were served a catered lunch at the funeral home where we asked many questions to both our hosts and the funeral director – a huge thank you to Roel for setting up the amazing tour and lunch for us!
Dickinson students, faculty, and hosts then hopped back into the cars and drove back to our hosts house where we then embarked on yet another journey! This time we took a lovely 30 minutes walk through the country side to see one of the very few people who hand-craft clogs in the Netherlands! He even gave us an in-person demonstration of how to make clogs over some tea, coffee, and pound cake.
Here is a beautifully hand-crafted clog that has an even more beautiful story – these clogs are to be worn when a dutch person is trying to flirt/court someone! When the couple gets married, the groom/bride wears these clogs, and then after the ceremony, the clogs are stored under the bed for good luck! Some Dickinson students were able to try them on so let’s hope they find their Dutch soulmate soon!
Here you see the traditional clog maker use this machine to help carve out the inside of the shoes!
Lastly, we headed back to our host’s house to have a backyard barbeque with all the students, faculty, and host family! We hung out, played with the animals, and chatted with each other by the fire until it got dark! We thank our host family for being so gracious to us so far in this trip and we can’t wait to see what comes next!
See you all tomorrow for another adventure!
by Izzy and Karina
Great post ?. Love his clogs.