‘Death cafes’ growing in popularity across Canada

Because who doesn't want to discuss death while sipping on tea and eating lavender-flavoured shortbread?

If the term 'death cafe' conjures up images of old ladies talking about their cats and arguing over the best brand of adult diapers, you might be interested to know participants have a greater diversity of backgrounds and ages than that.

The concept behind death cafes -- the first of which popped up in Europe in 2004 -- involves creating a space where people can talk about a taboo topic in a comfortable environment, over beverages and snacks.

"It opens the door. It opens the conversation. And if people have felt that they hadn't had a place to talk about death, that can be enough to start with," Vancouver death cafe organizer Ross Waddell tells CTV News.

The idea originates from the work of Swiss sociologist Bernard Crettaz who incorporated the study of death into his research and spread the popular events from Switzerland to Belgium and France in 2004. From there, they caught on in the U.K. staring in 2011, reports the Huffington Post.

Each cafe is usually led by a hospice worker or social worker who throws out questions to the group to initiate discussion.

"How do they want to die? In their sleep? In the hospital? Of what cause? When do they want die? Is 105 too old? Are they scared? What kind of funerals do they want, if any? Is cremation better than burial? And what do they need accomplish before life is over?" reports the Huffington Post.

A series of death cafes have recently been held in Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary and Edmonton.

Participants come from a variety of backgrounds with some working in the fields of palliative and hospice care, some who have experienced the death of a loved one and some who are just itching to discuss their death-related fears.

“We both want to be cremated, and our irrational fear is what if we’re still alive while we’re being cremated?" participant Judy Gillis tells the Edmonton Journal about the common fear she shares.

Then there's participant Erin Christopher, a 32-year-old widow, who says she has noticed people are very uncomfortable talking about death.

“There really is a taboo on death, especially for younger people. We don’t know what to do with it. Should we say something, or should we say nothing?”

Waddell agrees it's taboo, but believes the cafes can change the way people think about death.

"It frees them from something they've been holding within, that they can't talk about," he tells CTV News. "I think it's going to open up our whole cultural understanding of death and dying."