Domenica in Albis, a White Sunday full of colour

The Sunday after Easter, Low Sunday, in Dutch "Beloken Pasen". In Albis meaning in White. Apparently new Christians were baptized during the night preceding Easter Day, clothed in white. They wore these white clothes till the next Sunday, so for a full week, when they took them off. That is why it is called Dominica in Albis, white Sunday, the last Sunday they wore those white robes.

For me it was a peculiar Sunday as it was the last Sunday for our chaplain. After almost five years he is returning to a small parish in England. So it was goodbye and farewell. I am afraid that musically this was not a Sunday worth mentioning, at least as far as the contribution of the choir was concerned. We sang Chilcotts Irish Blessing, but that is hardly a musical challenge. 

The cello music was beautiful, but personally I object to favouring a grand piano and a cello over the church organ. The pot luck lunch following the service, to which I contributed a quiche, was a very busy do indeed, and the queue very long. There was a mouth watering selection of dishes, hot and cold, and it was hard to chose. We had to leave before the desserts were served, as I had to pick up a friend at the station. 

After that the white, and as far as the weather was concerned the grey Sunday, became multicoloured when we went for a drive along the bulb fields which are very colourful at the moment. It was blustery and cold, a typical Dutch Spring day, which makes one long for hot drinks and open fires, and wrapping up in warm winter coats. But the flowers were beautiful as always. Vogelenzang, a small village, had something extra in store for us. In the private gardens there were mosaics on show, made of hundreds of tiny individual flowers of hyacinths. As it was very busy, we did not explore the village but happened on one mosaic which was very appropriate for this day, April 15^th, a floral modal of the Titanic which sank exactly 100 years ago, taking with it some 1500 people who were drowned.

We did warm up afterwards, with another cooked meal of pasta, piping hot Bolognese sauce and a bottle of red wine. With a green salad and some bright red baby tomatoes, it gave even more colour to this white Sunday.