When did people start using surname? Surnames became obligatory in The Netherlands during the time of Louis Napoleon. He was appointed by his brother Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806. As their way of protest, many Dutch chose a strange, meaningless (or rather: words with funny meaning) surname.
Some common surnames: de Boer (means: farmer, some surnames were derived from occupation), van ... (from ... followed by a city name, i.e. : van Deventer), there are also surnames derived from adjectives, i.e.: De Groot (the Big).
But many are not that willing to choose a proper surname, hence nowadays we can find a television reporter named 'de Hond' (means: the Dog). Remember the football player Koeman? FYI, koe = cow. Somewhere I read there's someone whose surname is Koe-Melkman (melkman = milkman).
So, how important is surname? VERY! Not only because in every form there are separate fields for surname and given name(s), surnames are very important that my bank only have my surname and initials. No where in the paper they even asked what my first name is.
Something tickled me: how long have batakese been using surnames? Anybody knows? I have some kind of estimation, does anyone know for sure?
Tuesday, 15 March 2005
Monday, 14 March 2005
Fingerprint billing
An article caught my eyes:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4344279.stm
Reminds me of Rev 13:16-17
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=revelation%2013:16-17;&version=31;
The end of days is getting closer.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4344279.stm
Reminds me of Rev 13:16-17
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=revelation%2013:16-17;&version=31;
The end of days is getting closer.
little wonder
Just wonder, if I consider Amsterdams Historisch Museum as too much, what will I think of Louvre? :p I'm going to Paris this weekend! woehoe!
Jewish Historical Museum
Hehehe, it's History weekend, guys. This afternoon I went to Jewish Historical Museum. The Jewish community in Amsterdam has been there for quite a period. They say, some words in Amsterdam dialect could be traced back to its Yiddish origin.
It is housed in the former Synagoge. The interior was kept to help visitors imagine how it would be when it was still used as a Synagoge.
The Torah arc -- where Torah was kept, with the curtain to separate it from the rest of the room, the 'everlasting' lamp nearby, reminds me about Tabernacle in Catholic church.
The 'yad' -- means 'hand' -- the stick they use to point the position they're reading in Torah, fact that they don't touch it with their hand but rather with 'yad' reminds me with Moslems (correct me if I'm wrong).
There I also see media presentation about their life, their important days. Bar mitzvah, Shabbat, wedding, etc. One interesting thing that I saw in the wedding video: the wedding ring is inserted by the groom to the bride's fore-finger then the bride moved it to her ring-finger. The same thing happened when the bride gave a ring -- first to fore-finger then moved to ring-finger.
Upstairs there's an exhibition about Amsterdam's Jewish history -- I skipped that and went to children's exhibition, titled 'Where Mokum is Home' or 'In Mokum staat een huis'. Mokum is the Jewish name for Amsterdam. I can't see how a kid cannot enjoy such kind of exhibition. There are many interesting things presented in a simple way -- very nice exhibition.
There's a 'kitchen' display, where in the drawers you can see how they have separated dish for milk (blue) and meat (red) and why do they do that. In another drawer, there are small animal toys of 'kosher' food, and on another drawer about 'non kosher'.
One nice thing about being in Amsterdam: all things in museum are presented in English as well as in Dutch. And the English version is just the same version, not a 'resume type'.
It is housed in the former Synagoge. The interior was kept to help visitors imagine how it would be when it was still used as a Synagoge.
The Torah arc -- where Torah was kept, with the curtain to separate it from the rest of the room, the 'everlasting' lamp nearby, reminds me about Tabernacle in Catholic church.
The 'yad' -- means 'hand' -- the stick they use to point the position they're reading in Torah, fact that they don't touch it with their hand but rather with 'yad' reminds me with Moslems (correct me if I'm wrong).
There I also see media presentation about their life, their important days. Bar mitzvah, Shabbat, wedding, etc. One interesting thing that I saw in the wedding video: the wedding ring is inserted by the groom to the bride's fore-finger then the bride moved it to her ring-finger. The same thing happened when the bride gave a ring -- first to fore-finger then moved to ring-finger.
Upstairs there's an exhibition about Amsterdam's Jewish history -- I skipped that and went to children's exhibition, titled 'Where Mokum is Home' or 'In Mokum staat een huis'. Mokum is the Jewish name for Amsterdam. I can't see how a kid cannot enjoy such kind of exhibition. There are many interesting things presented in a simple way -- very nice exhibition.
There's a 'kitchen' display, where in the drawers you can see how they have separated dish for milk (blue) and meat (red) and why do they do that. In another drawer, there are small animal toys of 'kosher' food, and on another drawer about 'non kosher'.
One nice thing about being in Amsterdam: all things in museum are presented in English as well as in Dutch. And the English version is just the same version, not a 'resume type'.
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