[Culturechat] Re: Idyll Culture Chat

[Vance Roy]

Bob Miller is an Idyller who has visited Sachseln with his Old Timer's 
Hiking Club from East Tennessee. He had some questions after the visit 
and suggested that I send a copy of the answers to the chat too.

  What is the 
> correct spelling of the luscious dish we had at the Old Timers lunch on 
> the mountain behind Sachseln?  I've seen several versions and would 
> prefer to be correct when I mention it.


Alpen Maggaronen, sometimes Alper Maggaronen

 
> Item two.  What are the correct names for the various kinds of 
> "gondolas"we use in Switzerland?  There the big 80-100 passenger type, 
> the four person enclosed type and the open chair type and maybe some 
> others that I have yet to see.  Again, I would like to be correct when I 
> attempt to identify one.


Largest= Luftseilbahn (air rope train)
Middle= Gondelbahn
Smaller= Sesselbahn
Funicular= Cable towed train

 Third, refresh my memory regarding burial practices In Switzerland.  Is 
> cremation practiced?  Widely, if at all?  What at the particulars about 
> how long the body gets to use the space?  Is it custom or law?


Crematoriums run 24 hours a day here. Ashes are placed in urns in some 
cemeteries. It is an unasked question of ash disposal in other ways. 
Lots are scattered in the mountains, lakes, etc. No one investigates 
this illegal activity. If not cremated, there is no embalming. In 
Sachseln, one gets the use of a grave for 25 years. After that, it is 
refreshed for the next person. Wooden caskets, no vaults, and a damp 
climate see to it that at most, after 25 years, there may be a thigh 
bone left. It is a local regulation. A cemetery in Germany that I 
visited, leaves the grave for 40 years.


 
> How about the support of churches?  I have seen innumerable beautiful 
> church buildings in Switzerland but almost no use of them.  Also I can't 
> ever remember seeing one where there weren't FRESH flowers present, even 
> in the little chapel at Schwarzsee above Zermatt.


Church attendance parallels that of the USA. There is a religion tax 
which is quite small. You specify catholic, protestant, or atheist on 
your tax form (atheists do not have to pay).

 
> If you are going to take the time to respond, you might as well put your 
> comments on Culture Chat so that others can enjoy them.
> 
 
> Bob Miller
> 


Vance Roy
gigli.saw@dplanet.ch.