By: Anuradha
Death is a scary thing. Even though none of us mortals have any idea about what exactly death means and what will happen after that, we all are afraid of death and it is something that we least expect. Among all of us, it is really hard for kids to understand this concept and they can be more affected by the loss of their loved ones. But, as a parent would you think that it would be good for your kid to know about death, funerals, grief, and cremation from their young ages or would you want to prevent them from learning about such topics?
Bestattungsmuseum, the funeral museum in Vienna’s famous central cemetery decided to help their younger visitors to better understand this hard concept by introducing the LEGO kit based on somber funeral scenes.
Image credits: bestattungsmuseum
Museum spokesperson Dr. Florian Keustch told that,
“We established the first product made of LEGO components in 2016. First, it was a historical tram, which brought dead bodies to the Viennese central cemetery and was used in Vienna between the first and second world wars. This tram was for collectors, and then we made a truck and a historical hearse.”
Image credits: bestattungsmuseum
The cemetery, which is one of the largest in the world with over 330,000 graves and tombs spread over 590 acres, houses the graves of many famous names such as Beethoven and Strauss. However, despite their quiet reverence for the dead in their beautiful surrounds, they are also very much focused on the well-being of the living, too.
Image credits: bestattungsmuseum
“In 2018 my team and I were thinking about new products made of LEGO components. We had a few questions from grieving customers like: “Can I take our children with us to the funeral of our grandfather?” or “my child is grieving, what can I do?” and so on.” Dr. Keusch explained. “So we were brainstorming, how we can help children to overcome their grief. We have developed the crematoria, the cemetery with an excavator, the mourning family with a female and a male dead body and a skeleton and a historical horse buggy.”
Image credits: bestattungsmuseum
We have integrated the Wiener Landesverband für Psychotherapie (Viennese Association of Psychotherapists) and ensured that the new products made of LEGO components were useful for therapy with children, and for parents with children, who were suffering from their loss. With these products, they can describe the process and the children can process their grief.”
Image credits: bestattungsmuseum
He further told that News about the (slightly morbid) LEGO sets has gained worldwide attention, which Dr. Keusch has described as overwhelmingly positive. “0.00001 percent of people were disgusted, because they have only read the headline “LEGO crematoria” and didn’t get the intentions behind these products,”.
Image credits: bestattungsmuseum
“They were made by an Austrian company – we created the design together with them and they produced the packaging, the manual and they organized the bricks and put it together in the box. It is not an official LEGO product, so we call it, for example, ‘crematoria made of LEGO components.”
Image credits: bestattungsmuseum
There are three new sets available with prices ranging from 50 to 90 euros. You can choose from a full cemetery with tombstones, tombs, excavators and cemetery personnel; there is also a crematorium in which a casket can be inserted.
If you are more interested in role-playing the process you can find a funeral parade and a grieving family, which includes a father, mother, child, a deceased person and also a decomposed skeleton.
So, what do you feel about this? Would you like to give your child one of these sets?
