Across the country, five major groups like the one in Hastings have sprung up in recent years for people wanting to build and customise their caskets. They’re called coffin clubs, and members have a range of motivations, from thumbing a nose at death to warding off loneliness to cutting funeral costs. Read more
A couple of Whanganui flatmates have turned to Facebook to offload an unwanted homemade coffin. Jesse Hosie made the coffin last year while he was student at City College. It was intended for his nana but she didn’t want it so it sat lying around his flat until now. Continue reading
Campaigners are arguing for return of the body of St Bernadette Soubirous to Lourdes, where she reported seeing visions of the Virgin Mary in 1858. An association, which has the support of several of the saint’s descendants, want her body to be returned from a chapel in Nevers in Burgundy. The association argues that the Read more
A coffin-shaped dunny will be removed from a far north Queensland cemetery and laid to rest in a nearby paddock. The curiosity, at the township of Millaa Millaa, doesn’t meet building standards and has attracted a number of complaints. Continue reading
A Polish firm that makes coffins has angered the Catholic church by trying to drum up business with a calendar depicting topless models posing next to its caskets. One image from the 2013 edition of the calendar has a blonde model, wearing only a skimpy thong and with a snake draped around her neck, reclining Read more