[Culturechat] Food, funeral customs

[Vance Roy]

We were really interested in Vance 
> Roy's answer to the question about burials in Switzerland.  We have 
> always been curious, or should we ssy that we have a morbid curiousity 
> about how things are handled in CH.


Hey! If you are morbid, so am I. I worked in a funeral home when I was 
in high school. Taught me a lot about people. Also gave my English 
teacher a fright when I wrote a term paper on body preservation.

In CH, there are no funeral homes (at least no one around here knows of 
any). There are folks to call when someone dies. They will help with 
dressing the body, casket procurement, church notification, and probably 
newspaper notices. Out here in the country, most folks don't get a daily 
paper. There is a weekly, but if someone dies , it may not be in the 
paper for some days. Therefore, one receives death notices in the mail 
box. These are beautiful cards with info on the deceased, relatives, 
times of services, etc.

In Sachseln, the body usually is taken to a viewing chapel that is next 
to the public cemetery. The remains lie there until the funeral, and 
people may come to pay respects. Families usually do not stay there. 
This room is in the side of the mountain, so it is enclosed on three 
sides by the earth and even in summer, remains cool.


  We have never seen a funeral 
> director or funeral home.  What happens when someone dies?.  Where does 
> the body get taken?  Who prepares it fir burial?  Where is the funeral 
> held?   Hope someone can answer these questions. 
> 

Vance Roy
gigli.saw@dplanet.ch.