More than seven hundred people are sitting in the Sint Joseph Church in Tilburg on Monday afternoon. It’s full steam ahead. Fortunately not because a popular Tilburg citizen died. It is Jar celebration: the carnival service. And so Pastor Robert van Aken goes extra deep with his brush in the holy water. With visible pleasure he splashes his audience: “Especially during carnival we think of others and act crazy. Do you know how important that is, that you can put things into perspective?”
Once a year, Van Aken and his deacon Geert Eijsbouts are allowed to go wild. This time they wear the green-orange scarf of Kruikenstad over their alb, the white mass habit. “I recently heard an interesting conspiracy theory about bridges in Paris,” Van Aken told Eijsbouts during the celebration. “They would all have been put in Seine.”
“Just like the Mounties, but church.”
“We have been looking forward to this for a long time. Because it is fun to do,” says Van Aken about the carnival service. “Just like the Mounties, or Johnny and Rijk, but a bit more churchy and a bit more Tilburg,” adds Eijsbouts.
Of course there are also prayers and a blessing. But it is not a Eucharistic celebration: the visitors do not receive communion. “We are a bit freer, we can adjust what we want,” says Van Aken about the service. And so instead of Gregorian chant, this time Multicolor by Son Mieux echoes through the church, just like Kleine Jongen by André Hazes and The Rose by Bette Midler.
In the church, orange and green, the carnival colors of Kruikenstad Tilburg, are dominant this time. The red carpet is orange-green, just like the carnival scarf that almost every visitor wears. Among them are Mayor Theo Weterings and Rector Magnificus of Tilburg University Wim van de Donk.
Dean Van Aken is nervous about only one thing: will his message get across? Are the carnival revelers, probably with a nail in the head from the previous evening, open to his contemplative words? “We are all in misery, life is not easy at all. And then here is the opportunity to show that God understands you where you are.”
“We have your love
Hopefully God understands Tilburg dialect, because that comes up a lot during the service. It is difficult for Van Aken, Oeteldonker by origin. Before the service, he goes through his texts: “Heavenly father, we have Your love nosy. Oh no, necessary.” His deacon Eijsbouts stands there and laughs about it. As a born Kruik, he has considerably less difficulty with it.
So Eijsbouts gives his audience the blessing: “We asked goodbye to the Krèùkezèèkers, don’t drink too much, but drink well”, he says, after recently swinging to ‘Starlight’ by Muse.
After the service, the Sleutelsòllers wind band plays the music of ‘The smile of a child’ while the Kruiken move from church to pub again. “It was fantastic,” an exuberant Van Aken shouts over the music. “And what you take with you is here,” he points to his heart. His deacon doesn’t hear it, he dances along to the music in front of the chapel.
