Some Sunday morning thoughts
Pouring rain outside – church bells ringing, the loud Catholic ones
I have eight documents with newsletters in various stages of completion open on my laptop right now. So, I thought why not start another one. You know me – my brain doesn’t switch off. And this is something I thought about on a long walk last week. It’s about … well, we’ll just have to see, won’t we? Something to do with tradition and gods and community, I think. Oh, and churches (the buildings, not the dogma). And yes, the church bells are ringing as I type this. Not the more subtle Protestant ones – the obnoxiously loud Catholic ones that feel like you’re sitting right next to them even though you’re a couple of hundred yards away with your windows closed. Those ones.
What triggered this newsletter today was that I was sitting down for breakfast, eating the traditional Butterzopf with butter and honey, drinking orange juice. That got me thinking about tradition and how there is something soothing in eating a special type of bread on a Sunday. Then there was also a Netflix series I started watching yesterday about how to become a cult leader. My brain linked the two in terms of traditions that became religious teachings that in turn can become cult-like when the teachings take over and control your life. But let’s back up a bit first.
On my walk it started with me thinking about church history, as in: what did churches signify when they were built? Why were they built? Then I landed on the island of Gotland which has an abundance of churches. Many look similar from the outside, but are different on the inside. I remembered stories of the five doors in a small church. Door 1 was for baptisms, door 2 for the congregation (the main entrance basically), door 3 for the pastor/vicar/reverend/minister (whatever you call them), door 3 for weddings and door 5 for funerals - it leads out onto the cemetery. Then there was also the story of women sitting on the side of the church where the devil was expected to come from. Well, obviously! As they would have a better chance to fight him off than the men, but that’s a different story …
My mind kept wandering around Scandinavia and to the round churches of Denmark. I especially remembered the ones on the island of Bornholm. Yes, I do love islands! It’s not really something we have here. At least not big ones like that. Anyway, those churches were used as fortresses. Denmark and Sweden fought over Bornholm for centuries. There are seven of those churches in Denmark (four on Bornholm). I’ve been to and inside all of them. I know there are more in Scandinavia and around the world. Hitting all seven in Denmark was what was on my bucket list – so I did that.
As I was walking out of Schaffhausen something made me think of churches as a primary source of information for many people way back when. It’s where everybody met on Sundays, exchanged news and heard about what was going on outside their world. I’m thinking Middle Ages and onwards. Since not a lot of people could read, they would rely on the clergy more than anybody else to share their (perceived) wisdom and to make written works available to them. I’m writing this from a European perspective – of course. And around here you really needed to know Latin to get anywhere at the time. Yes, there were other languages too of course. I’ve read texts in Old Norse, Old English, Old High German and Gothic, but Latin was the predominant language of scholars. Bit fuzzy on Greek here - I have to admit. I’ll look that up some other time.
If you take Old Norse and the Edda for instance, it had everything to do with telling stories. Mythical stories and legends. You should read it. Also have a look at some of modern day Iceland’s (unwritten) laws regarding mythical creatures. Still an important part of their culture today. And while I have you here. The word “law” comes from Old Norse as well.
One of my minors at university was Scandinavian studies. I’ve always had a fascination with Norse Gods. I mean we definitely needed an explanation for thunder – enter Thor! That’s how the world works. If we don’t understand something we try to find an explanation. And sometimes that is a god. Let’s quickly talk about the days of the week in English because that’s where my brain just went. We have two that are named after celestial bodies: Sun-day, Mon-day (moon). Then there are five that are derived from ancient Gods: Tuesday (Tiw), Wednesday (Odin/Woden), Thursday (Thor), Friday (Freya) and Saturday (Saturn). For some of this Romance languages (initially Latin of course) went with different goods (Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus). I’m doing these from memory, but I think that’s right.
This is just to make a point that gods have always been important. Important enough to name days of the week and later planets after them. And that’s just one example. Traditions formed around these gods throughout history. So, when Christianity arrived everybody was primed and ready to hear about new gods or a new god rather as a possible new source of explanation. Because, as I said before, this is essentially what mankind is trying to do, find answers. Of course, this took a bit of a turn when believing in this one god and no others became mandatory.
This took me somewhere else than I thought. I will continue to enjoy my Sunday morning Butterzopf but take comfort in knowing that it’s not mandatory for me to eat it every single Sunday.
Looking at the number of words, I will need to get back to this some other time. Just now the church bells are going again. Church is out.
Happy Sunday everyone.
Already wrote long comment but it’s lost in cyberspace I think! Not a big deal. Love your photo of the local church.
Think I said something like it was a good thing when people gathered to share news in the community on Sundays in church. Lots easier than following threads of conversation that get confusing in the line up. Rain, breakfast, church bells on a Sunday afternoon! Good to find you yesterday with David in Central Park while I was multitasking. 😘
Hahaha laughing at loud catholic church bells because of course they are 😄 Attended private school for 12 years which included mass every morning. At age 8 I determined their god was not the same as mine. I'm a humanist with some fondness for buddhism. Still love the sound of church bells.