Anyone who unsuspectingly enters the Grote Kerk in Schagen next Thursday will think that he has stepped into a time machine: a church service is being held in traditional costume and in West Frisian. The reason is the 70th anniversary of the West Frisian Folklore in Schagen. The West Frisian writer and pastor Ina Broekhuizen-Slot leads the service.
It will be an ecumenical service to which pastors Eduard Moltzer and Ivan Garcia Ferman are also invited. Pieter Rynja is organist and Klaasjan Bak from Valkoog does the scripture reading. The service starts at 12.45 pm, after the weekly procession of the West Frisian Folklore (in West Frisian costume and on horse carts) through the city. It lasts an hour.
“Basically it is a regular church service,” says John Duiven of West Frisian Folklore, “but everything happens in the dialect of the West Frisian language. Singing, preaching.”
It is the intention that as many people as possible attend the service in original West Frisian clothing, but of course everyone is welcome. Also in civilian clothes. There is no need to buy a ticket. And those who would like to sit in the church in original clothing can rent clothing at the clothing rental of the Folkore in the carriage museum on the Loet in Schagen.
Huge procession
The West Frisian Folklore was set up in 1953. Every week between 300 and 400 people take part in the procession of about twenty carriages with horses. “That is a huge procession,” says Duiven. “They run ten Thursdays in the summer months. If the weather is good, a lot of people come to see them. Recently there were around 10,000 people along the route.”