Koek and the rites of passage

Peperkoek was part of every celebration and, in particular, for the rites of passage. Koek was there for courtship when a girl came of age, for weddings, and to mourn the dead. Suitors bought a koek for their love at the annual fair or Carnival festivities and koeken were split and eaten at weddings to wish a long and happy life. Children looked eagerly at the neat piles of koek in the display window of the koek bakeries or market stalls. On the eve of All Souls’ Day the people baked koek; for Lost Monday the children would receive koek; employers treated their workers to koek and beer for New Year. An account in a magazine from 1879 tells me that the two last customs were dwindling at that time, but it was replaced by simply giving workers and children a koek they could take home. I remember my dad bringing home a loaf of peperkoek, as a gift from work, around Christmas. My mother remembers the baker carrying thick heart-shaped peperkoek around at Christmas time, on his bread rounds.