Palm Sunday a la Calvin

Fruits of Palm Sunday labor

I swear, the Calvinists here make the Lutherans of Brookings look downright hedonistic!  Today is Palm Sunday and do we wave palms and sing happy songs?  Absolutely NOT!  I have to chuckle  when I think of how many times I told the Lutheran Church choir to smile; we were joyful!  I definitely have stumbled into a worship experience very different from any I have ever done before.  And I have been in Methodist, Moravian, Baptist, Episcopal, UCC,  and Lutheran services with an occasional Jewish Friday night Shabbat thrown in for good measure. These people are serious.  They are not having anything remotely like Holy Week services; instead there is a debate about the Myths of Christianity.  It should be interesting, but I have tickets to the opera that night.  Verdi will win out every time with me.

I also learned that in the Languedoc, we don't use palm branches anyhow--we use olive branches.  As in actual branches.  I guess they're too heavy to wave around and march around singing.  In fact, the day, Dimanche de Rameau, doesn't mean Palm Sunday; it literally translates as "Branch Sunday."  And there was a big communal meal after service, which I did not attend as it was out of town. 

I know it's supposed to be the first day of spring, but it's chilly and a little drizzly here.  After coming home, I have spent the afternoon cooking....broccoli salad is marinating in the fridge and I spent the greater part of the afternoon baking oatmeal cookies (with walnuts and dried cranberries).  The afternoon had a very familiar feel to it, as that's what I used to do back in Brookings.  I would come home and cook for the week.  I do NOT want to get into the habit of doing that here.  I am retired, after all.  

Now I will take some cookies to the neighbors.