Thursday, November 22, 2007

Thanksgiving




Yesterday morning I decided to attend the annual Thanksgiving service at the St Pieterskerk in Leiden, or Leyden, in English. It's a beautiful church with an incredibly tall wooden ceiling, and thick stone columns. Rembrandt's parents are buried there. There's a plaque on the outside of the church giving that detail. He was born and educated in Leiden, which was, and has been for a long time, one of the more sophisticated cities in The Netherlands. It definitely has the feel of "learning." Many notables throughout history have studied at the University of Leiden, including John Adams.

I was admitted to the Literature Studies program (Literatuurwetenschap), but lacked funding. Oh well. Perhaps then I'd be too educated for my own good. Sigh.

The Netherlands has a reputation, now dwindling, for being an open, accepting society. People throughout history have come here in search of political asylum. Of course, that's true of many countries today, but The Netherlands has this feature as a long-standing tradition going back to 1500, or so. Spinoza was a product of Portueges Jews who fled Portugal to make their home in Amsterdam, most of whose descendants tragically perished in WWII.

The earliest Pilgrims were among those who sought refuge here in the early 1600s. They set sail from Rotterdam Delfshaven in 1620, after having spent most of twelve years in Leiden.

During the Thanksgiving service, I learned that the Pilgrims got their idea for Thanksgiving from the Dutch holiday 3 October (never heard of it), when people from Leiden celebrate liberation from the Spaniards with a herring and white bread feast. The principle was the same, even if the food is quite different. Lots of people getting together to eat and give thanks.

They also exported the Dutch idea for civil marriage, as an alternative for people who didn't wish to marry under a specific church.

The Pilgrims left Leiden to preserve the integrity of their group, and to escape mounting pressure from various factions, and because they weren't economically successful in Leiden. They also felt that the culture here was too liberal, and was having a bad influence on their children. So they set sail for the New World.

There's also the Pelgrimskerk in Rotterdam's Delfshaven, which is where they left from to go back to England, only to embark once again for the promised land, a journey that would cost half of them their lives, both on ship, and once they got there. They created lore with the Mayflower, and Plymouth Rock.

The Pilgrim's were a quietly religious folk in search of solitude, and the freedom to practice simple ways, not to be confused with the Puritans, a more dogmatic group.

It's been rumored that some of my English ancestors were among the very earliest of settlers to the United States, but I didn't see any Harris's on the list of those who boarded the Mayflower in 1620.

It was a nice, very American service, something that I wouldn't tolerate if I still lived in the US. Lots of Americanism, a message from the President (written by a speech writer, of course), speeches, singing. We stood for the "presenting of the colors." "The colors" is the flag, a term I hadn't heard in decades. There were scouts, a high school band, a youth choir, little kids dressed as Pilgrims. It reminded me of where I came from, and what I left behind "a long time ago," music, singing in the choir, squeaky clean living. The band played Simple Gifts, which is a Shaker hymn, and "Fanfare." We sang America the Beautiful, at which point I became so chocked up, I couldn't sing along, although I do so love to sing.

Interesting that the word "sojourner" came up in the service. The Pilgrims were sojourners. I've identified myself as a sojourner, however enmired I've become, I always think in terms of moving on, somehow. Of course, that's my perception.

I spent some time walking around the church. Most of the people were in groups, and some of them seemed to be tourists. A lot of the crowd also seemed to be wealthy Hague/Wassenaar American expats whose children go to the American school (a mere 20,000 a year tuition for primary school). I recognized one man from the Democrats Abroad, and he seemed to recognize me, too. I went to a Democrats meeting once in a house on the Grachten Gordel in Amsterdam, the most expensive place to live here, and the woman, wearing a diamond at least several carrots, apologized for the furnishings. Ah, the trials we face.) I'm not very at home in that crowd.

On the train ride over I sat next to two American women who have roots here. They were trying to read a Dutch newspaper. There was some news on the cover they were interested in, so I offered to translate for them. They told me that their husband/father was born and raised here until age 15. He's become frustrated in recent years trying to speak Dutch on visits. No one will oblige him. They all reply in English. They also told me that they'd noticed a change in attitude in general, much less tolerance, a lot more intolerance of "outsiders." I told them that I felt shut out from the culture, even though I've lived here for nine years, speak the language, and have a Dutch passport.

This is becoming a rambling post.

I managed to make a tofu turkey. It turned out well, and tastes remarkably like turkey. I'll have to experiment with tofu more often. If you mush it up, and press it between a weight, you come up with a nice texture. You can also add different seasonings to the mush.

I also made fresh cranberry sauce using orange juice, a little strawberry syrup, and loads of sugar, and candied sweet potatoes, loads of butter and sugar. Yams are impossible to find in The Netherlands. My husband cooked a piece of turkey, but he also loved the tofu turkey. I was surprised that my daughter really liked the tofu turkey. Unfortunately, our son wouldn't touch it. It was filled with a stuffing of dark brown bread, mushrooms, dried apricots, dried currents, walnuts, rosemary, parsley, oregano, vegetable broth, an egg, miso, soy sauce, orange juice, sesame oil, olive oil, mustard. I also basted it with a quick mix of miso, soy sauce, mustard, and orange juice. It wasn't hard to make at all. It was good to make the effort toward a family togetherness meal. We should do it more often.

This weekend I'm planning on baking some pumpkin pie, which is a custard pie, also apart of a traditional Thanksgiving feast. I could manage it yesterday. My favorite recipe uses fresh pumpkin, or yellow squash, a pat in the pan butter crust, and either créme fraiche, or reduced fat creme. Delicious.

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