But now we are all strangers and pilgrims, travelers and Sojourners.

This is the inscription on the plaque which marks the square where "the Pilgrims" (of American Thanksgiving  fame) lived for the twelve years immediately preceding their journey to the New World aboard the Mayflower. Although these Pilgrims were of English descent, several of the younger ones were born here in the Netherlands. Several of the couples were married here in the Netherlands. And a number of their group died and were buried here in the Netherlands.

I didn't always realize the Dutch connections to the American Thanksgiving story -- but it's actually a pretty significant part of the story. After experiencing religious persecution in England for their anti-Anglican, Reformed theology, a community of these "Separatists" decided to move to Leiden, in the Netherlands, under the leadership of their pastor John Robinson. There they were granted religious freedom and opportunities for economic stability (through the booming textile industry of the period), and eventually they established a commune of sorts on this square in the shadow of the big Pieterskerk (Peter's Church) in central Leiden. For twelve years, they lived and worked in the Netherlands -- until they started to fear that their children were getting too assimilated into the surrounding culture, and they ultimately decided to send all of the able-bodied members of their community on to North America, where greater freedom, greater isolation, and greater economic opportunities awaited them.

But the Pilgrims certainly left their mark on Leiden. And Leiden -- it would seem -- left its mark on the Pilgrims, too. Most intriguingly, historical records indicate that the Pilgrims greatly admired the Leidenaars annual religious / civic holiday, along with its traditional feasting, designed specifically for the purpose of thanking God for His deliverance of the Dutch against their Spanish oppressors in the Eighty Years War (celebrated every year in October). Some historians have even theorized that the early Thanksgiving feasts in New England may have been inspired by the Pilgrims' time in Leiden! I honestly don't know how much stock to put in these theories, but they are certainly interesting to consider...

In any event, our family was privileged to visit Leiden on Thanksgiving Day this year (the kids were even granted the day off from school!). We went together with several American friends from Amsterdam, and we all joined in a larger celebration put on by the American Embassy in the Netherlands. The service itself was all right (a kind of typical patriotic / pseudo-religious, ecumenical church service)... But more than anything it was just cool to be in that place, together with a group of other "strangers and pilgrims, travelers and sojourners."

It's ironic that we now live here in the Netherlands, having moved from North America seeking to establish a spiritual community: kind of Pilgrims in reverse (although our goal has always been to engage with the surrounding culture, not to separate from it). But to say the least, we felt a special appreciation this year for the connection between the Netherlands and the United States of America, on Thanksgiving Day.

And after our visit to the Pieterskerk, of course we had to go out to lunch. We had Dutch pancakes instead of a big turkey dinner. But that was OK. When you're strangers and pilgrims, travelers and sojourners, improvisation is always a part of the story. :-)

This weekend, we've had the privilege of celebrating both St. Maarten's Day (the 11th of November) and the arrival of Sinterklaas in the Netherlands (usually the third, or in this case the fourth, Sunday before the 5th of December). We've really come to enjoy these uniquely Dutch traditions.

It seemed to me that Sint Maarten's Day this year was more substantial than it usually is. Perhaps it's because it happened to fall on a Friday evening this year... Or perhaps it's because we just had three kids who were all in the right age range for getting into things... Or perhaps it's just because we went out with a bigger group from the kids' school, to mark the occasion. I don't know, but several of the Dutch parents also remarked on the phenomenon which was almost unknown to them in their childhood. In any event, Sint Maarten's Day just seemed like a bigger deal this year.

Not that it's really all that much hoopla. It's like a cross between American Christmas carrolling (in that there's singing involved) and American trick-or-treating (in that there's candy involved). Paper lanterns are thrown in there as a part of the mix, too. I made a little video clip of the occasion, in case you're curious. It's actually a very simple holiday... but a nice one.

Sinterklaas's arrival in the Netherlands, on the other hand, actually seemed to be something of a smaller celebration this year. Perhaps it was government cut-backs in the Sinterklaas budget... Or perhaps it was because of the fact that we've got one kid who's starting to grow out of the Sinterklaas phase (Elliot) plus one kid who's still a bit intimidated by the whole deal (Cor)... Or perhaps it's just that there's no novelty left in Sinterklaas for me, as a cross-cultural observer... In any event, it just felt slightly less significant this year.

Indeed it's interesting to watch the way that the collective cultural consciousness works in matters of Sinterklaas. Basically all of the kids in Elliot's class have now come to the full realization of the Sinterklaas myth (i.e. "He's not real"), and as such there actually seems to be something of a backlash among his peers. They don't want to have anything to do with such "baby stuff." They're too cool to watch the Sinterklaas Journaal (daily television program) now. They've left Sinterklaas behind them, at least for now. It actually creates a strange dynamic now with Elliot, who has always known the full extent of the Sinterklaas myth but still got swept up in the whole phenomenon, just for the fun of it. He doesn't feel any need to abandon the joys of Sinterklaas... but I wonder how much longer that will last. It's funny to watch kids grow up.

Just for the sake of balance, I'll also include a video clip of Sinterklaas's steamship cruising through the Nieuwe Herengracht...

In any event, I wish you a wonderful holiday season -- wherever you are, and whichever culture's set of holidays you might be celebrating!

Our family has been visiting the Olmenhorst Orchard for several years now. In September or October, we take a trip out to the countryside near Lisserbroek, and we pick a few bags of apples. And we take a lot of pictures in the process. It's a fun, folksy, fall thing to do. But it also serves as an interesting measuring stick for our kids' growth and development. Looking at pictures of them doing the same activity at the same location at the same time of the year, from year to year, it's really clear to see how they've changed through the years.

Here are a couple of pictures from earlier today (in 2011):

But look at how different those kids are from just two years previously, in 2009:

Or from 2008:

Or from 2006:

Or from 2005:

Crazy how time flies, isn't it? Crazy... and kind of beautiful, too.

What would it be like if we shared in communion similar to the way we share in a dinner party? What if it was something like a special dinner party to mark the observance of a wedding anniversary, or a birthday, or a farewell to a close friend who's moving away? What if it wasn't just bread and wine, but butter and cheese and hummus and pesto -- or maybe even a whole meal? Is it sacreligious to think of communion in this way? We could be eating bread and appetizers, drinking wine or juice -- just talking about news and weather and pasttimes... And then someone could tap his wine glass with a fork and call the room to order for a brief moment of toasting the honored guest at the dinner party: Jesus. Someone could take a hunk of bread from the basket in the middle of the table, give thanks to God for it, and break it to be passed around the table. We could check to make sure that everyone's glass is full from the bottle on the table, and then the bread could be chased down with a sip of the wine, saying: "We do this in remembrance of Jesus!"

It sounds like such an appealing remembrance to me. Yet in all my experience of Christian worship, communion has always been a very solemn and ceremonious occasion. It's all about contemplation and contrition. We wear serious looks on our faces. We keep silent. We listen to slow songs about Jesus' sacrifice, and then we eat the bread and drink the wine without making eye contact with any of the other believers in the room. It's an intensely private experience, between each person and God.

Of course, I get it on a certain level. Communion is designed to be a moment of remembrance and reflection on the death of our Messiah, our Christ -- and death is generally a pretty solemn thing. Furthermore, the Bible does indeed explicitly state that, "A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup" (1 Corinthians 11:23-32). Communion is not to be taken flippantly, without any thought abouts its deeper meaning, lest it becomes a religious sham.

Still, does it really have to be solemn, silent, and self-contained?

Wasn't communion originally designed to a communal act of celebration and proclamation? When Jesus first introduced the practice to his disciples, on the eve of his crucifixion, it was in the setting of one of the most beloved Jewish holidays of the year: the Passover Dinner celebration. It was sitting around a table together, sharing food and drink and conversation. Throughout the book of Acts, the followers of Jesus are regularly "breaking bread" in each others' homes -- and the context often makes it difficult to tell if the situation is specifically about observing the Lord's Supper together or enjoying a full meal together (or both). Even when Paul wrote to the Corinthians about self-examination and giving proper recognition to the potent symbolism within communion -- he wasn't dictating absolute solemnity. He was merely seeking to balance out the inequality and excesses of the Corinthians' communion celebrations, which could tend towards gluttony and drunkenness. It seemed like everyone in Corinth understood that communion was supposed to be about fun and fellowship; they just needed to be reminded to not get carried away with themselves and to include the remembrance of Jesus' death within all the feasting. This is how I read the Bible, anyway. To me, it's hard to ignore the fact that communion was designed to be a communal celebration. Wasn't it? Am I missing anything?

My friend Michaël and I were talking about this recently, and ever since I've been feeling inspired to include this moment of remembrance within special church dinners, or Thanksgiving celebrations, or meals at home. With other believers in our house, it could be a moment of mutual reminiscence for a personal acquaintance. Or with non-believers, it could be a moment of proclamation -- perhaps even a potential conversation-starter. I don't know why these thoughts have never really occurred to me before... But I'm realizing more and more that the ways we typically celebrate communion may be more closely tied into medieval power structures (i.e. administering sacraments) than they are to 1st Century Christian practice. And I'm curious to consider the implications of alternative forms of communion.