In what is surely the biggest effort to make death look like fun since the HBO series Six Feet Under went off the air, a Dutch Expo is displaying some of the latest trends for dealing with death.
Between coffins that have been decked out with board games, or grave sites that double as vegetable patches (try and explain where THOSE tomatoes came from at your next dinner party), the Expo attracted thousands who wanted a peek at new gadgets that are meant to give a loved one the best, and final farewell.
According to the Associated Foreign Press, more than 3,500 people flocked to a one-day Expo at Amsterdam's historic Westerkerk church for a peek at all things death.
Some came to find unique burials for relatives and friends. One company even offered 3D-printed urns in the shape of the deceased person's head.
(Hey, that's far better than an empty Folgers coffee can).
With the average cost of a funeral costing families between $7,000 and $10,000, cost-savings were a big focus for some companies. One offered a mail-order coffin that could be shipped through the mail, and then 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-to-assemble furniture.
Ideally, you won't have any parts left over after putting that together.
The idea of the funeral expo was to expose people to "how you celebrate and say farewell to your life," according to the organizer, Van Schaik told the Associated Foreign Press.