Episode: 3189
Title: HPR3189: How the Dutch dig Graves
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3189/hpr3189.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-24 18:28:15

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3189 for Thursday 22 October 2020. Today's show is entitled
How the Dutch Dig graves. It is hosted by Ken Farlund,
and is about three minutes long
and carries an explicit flag. The summary is,
Ken explains how they dig graves when the ground is essentially sand.
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Music
Hi everybody my name is Ken Farlund and you're listening to another episode of Hacker Public Radio.
Today we're in the graveyard doing our mandatory walk during lockdown.
And I wanted to talk to you about how graves are dug in the Netherlands.
Probably a gloomy show, but an interesting part of the geography of the Netherlands
is that there is a distinct lack of anything but sand.
So it's a river delta, the country, so everything is basically sand.
And if you're digging a grave six feet down or the equivalent I guess two meters
that you would have collapses in on itself.
So what to do in the graveyard here is the first dig down about a meter,
three foot, and then they put a frame around the outside
of the grave and then inside of that there's another telescoping frame
that descends down the next three meters, essentially showing the whole thing up.
Then at the top they have a middle grid that goes over the grave
to prevent people from falling into it.
The sand itself is kept here on the path and presumably will be pushed back in
when somebody is buried.
We've been out a few grave funerals here.
I'm here with my wife, say hi.
Hi.
We've been out a few funerals here, thankfully not too many.
And I think traditionally, in Ireland traditionally you would put the person in the ground
and then it's considered an honor for everybody to pick up some shovelful of soil
and put it back into the grave.
But obviously that's not going to work here.
So I think they cover it with green and just leave the grave there
and then the mourners go away and then the undertakers basically repeat the process here.
But they have to tuck in the sand in around the casket to prevent subsidence.
So I'll take a few pictures and put these in the show notes.
Probably a morbid episode but not really it's part of life here.
And also we live right beside the grave yard.
So it's a nice place to come and have a quiet walk without disturbing anybody.
Tune in tomorrow for another exciting episode of Hacker Public Radio.
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