Continuing on from the previous post: Upon arriving in Goor, I met Sascha’s parents, Alex and Mary. They are very nice and talkative people who like to have fun. As it so happens, Alex was going to turn 50 years old on Sunday, April 10. This is a huge birthday in the Netherlands filled with several traditions. The main tradition is for family and friends to make “puppets” and put them in the person who is turning 50’s garden.
These “puppets” are life-size representations of that person with key characteristics that accurately portrays the person. The “puppets”, which are called “Abrahams” for men and “Sarahs” for women, are a Dutch tradition dating back many years. The tradition obviously gets its roots from the Bible as Abraham and Sarah are key characters. Along with the “Abrahams”, mustard is also given to man turning fifty. I asked Sascha and Mary how the tradition of placing an “Abraham” and mustard in the garden originated but no one knew. This was a very strange tradition to me and Sascha felt the same way, but I guess traditions are like that. Alex received three different “Abrahams,” one from Sascha and Mary, one from his larger family, and one from his neighbors. Most of these “puppets” had a reference to his favorite soccer team, GFC. During the course of the night of April 9, many of his relatives arrived at his house to celebrate. Once the relatives started leaving, I headed to bed. I slept in the attic (which was finished and had a room).
In the morning on April 10, I had a nice breakfast of bread with chocolate sprinkles and tea. These chocolate sprinkles are a very Dutch thing to eat on bread. The morning was very relaxed as the party did not start until 1pm. Once that time came, we all piled in a taxi and drove to a very nice country club. This country club had an old English interior with seating outside also.
Since the weather was very nice, everyone stayed outside to enjoy the sun. Champagne was served and waiters walked around giving people whatever drinks they wanted.
As the friends and family of Alex began arriving, I stood next to Alex, Sascha, and Mary. While standing there, I quickly noticed another Dutch tradition. This tradition was the people would not only congratulate Alex for his birthday but would also congratulate the family and close friends. Since I was standing with the family, everyone also congratulated me which I thought was very strange. I actually learned about this tradition in my interim Dutch class but forgot about it up until now. Well the party had about 80 people in attendance, all family and friends. Everyone sat in the sun and talked and enjoyed themselves. Since I only knew a few people, I mainly just stayed by them even though most of the people there could also speak English. The birthday party is quite similar to the style we have in the United States except no one sang happy birthday to him and he opened his presents as people arrived and gave the present to him. Other than that, the party was just like a normal birthday party. At around 5pm I left with some people and they dropped me off at the train stop and I began my long trip home. Since I was only a couple miles from the German border, it took a relatively long time to get back but made the trip in 2 hours. Overall, a very nice weekend with a lot of different cultural experiences!
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