CATHOLIC FEASTS I come from a family that is typically catholic, which becomes clear from the fact that my grandmother gave birth to more than a dozen children, two of which became priests.  Whatever we may think of families with  so many children, there was one thing in which they excelled positively: partying. Whenever a wedding or other jubilee was to be celebrated, a hall was rented to hold a dinner. Those dinners lasted for many hours. 'Why so long?' you may ask. Did the family have such huge appetetites? No, not really. It's true, these dinners consisted of five or six courses. But between the courses the family performed songs and sketches, which were often made by the guests themselves and usually had some bearing on the wedded couple or those who had anything else to celebrate. There was one song that I remember which had not been made by any of the guests. To be absolutely honest, I've only heard it in our family. I'll translate the text into English:   In eighteen-ninety-five,   When my aunt was dying,   The whole family went there,   To inherit all the property.   I searched a cabinet.   Where I found this hat   It did not fit,   So I in turn I deposited it on my neighbour's head.   In eighteen-ninety-five, etc. etc. Every time this stanza was repeated the person sitting at the head of the table got another hat from a box and put it on his own head. When the words on my neighbour's head were sung, all the guests removed their own hats from their heads and passed it on to put it on the head of their neighbour. You may wonder what the use of this activity may have been? What is the use of a conga? Probably no more than that people seem to derive much pleasure from it ... And that's what a party is about, or isn't it? This weblog appeared in Dutch on 14 November 2004 on Internet site Overtom.nl.
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