Lichtmis nocturne in Abey

Last week it was Candlemass.  The Christian end of the Christmas period, 40 days after the birth of Jesus when the baby was brought to the Temple by his parents and the old wise man Simeon recognised him as God's promised saviour.  But Febr 2nd is also the clear visible turn of the dark days, so we call it Candlemass, since there was a historic Celtic tradition of light parades which the catholic church took over. 

On Friday evening, there was a nocturne in the Park Abbey in Leuven.  Kabouter's class had helped put and light up the hundreds of little candles that decorated the historic buildings, and Beertje had crafted a candle in his class.   We got tickets with our friend from yab.be and took the opportunity to visit the abbey and the PARCUM museum in the evening in the lovely setting. 

First we listened a moment to the flute concert in the church, before we roamed the abbey cloister hallways. 

Beertje's masterpiece candle

In the old abbot's apartment, we studied the maps of the former rich and influent abbey and we spotted our home location on the map. 

The highlight of the visit is of course getting access to the beautiful refectory and the library, both with their stunning restored, important 3D-stucco ceilings, which depict the life of Saint Norbert. 

We closed the evening with a meal together in the on-site restaurant at the mill, together with our friend, her boyfriend and a colleague who had also arrived. Of course we tasted a locally brewed abbey beer, and after our meal we went back to get our pancakes as desert, which the teachers and other parents from the boy's school were baking for the visitors.  There is no Ephiphany Both boys had already disappeared from the restaurant when we took our time for a nice meal and conversations together and they got bored. Since the entire abbey site was full of acquantances and school friends, they had ran through the abbey expositions a couple of times extra with their friends and were in the meantime helping out with the pancake baking.  It's nice when the world is just a village.