bar CHURCH hopping

Since I'm starting this blog on Friday the 13th, I thought I'd ward off any bad luck that could ensue by talking about my recent foray into Amsterdam's "church culture" last week. Yes, that's right. Church, in Amsterdam. I'm not talking about the Nieuwe Kerk which is now a museum, or the Oude Kerk which is a tourist venue, but real church services in a city in which supposedly people no longer go to church.

Well, most Amsterdammers may not go to church regularly now (at least compared to the 3 times a week that was my schedule as a child -- BEAT YA!), but they certainly show marked enthusiasm for the holy week tradition. Especially for Bach's music, such as the Matthaus Passion, which was performed in the Concertgebouw. My purse strings were a bit too tight to make it to the fancy Concertgebouw, so I saw the Johannes Passion in the good 'ole Westerkerk. I can always count on it for high-quality free concerts. I was shocked to find the place filled. My friend and I were barely allowed inside; there was a posted capacity of 1,500 people. Aside from the dragging opening and closing participatory hymns of six and seven verses respectively (in Dutch), the actual performance was beautiful. And despite the amount of people in the audience, the atmosphere was quiet and reverent. Perhaps this was because of the average age of the attendees...

Shift the scene to Easter Sunday in the St. Nicolas Kerk. The mass at 1:00 is in Spanish and generally serves the Spanish and Latin-American residents of the city. It, too, was packed. It, however, had a significant population under the age of twelve. In fact, the children had a role in the service, carrying flowers, lighting candles, and reading passages. Needless to say, the atmosphere was a bit less quiet than in the Westerkerk, what with little kids trying to climb onto the platform with the priest. It worked for me, though, since I couldn't understand much of the Spanish anyway!

It was very interesting to see some Amsterdammers in these religious contexts. I would do it more often, but with spring here, the parks are the place to people-watch on Sundays :)