My friend, Y, who lives there for the moment, was looking for a white dress to wear to her wedding. (Which by the way, was last weekend and totally glorious!) But she couldn't find any white dresses in Krimpen.
What does a white dress signify? In marriages in many cultures, it symbolises the virginity of the bride. "Radiance" and "glow" of her face are also related to this, at least in a culture that I can claim some understanding of.
Y attributed this missing-white-dress phenomena to the many conservative Christians there. Since they know that practically no one nowadays 'saves themselves' for marriage (you know what I mean, right? I can't say it out loud, but I have to use euphemisms and hedge around it), they don't want to sell white dresses because these are only for virgins!
Of course there's no way to be counting the number of conservative Christians there and come to a conclusion based on significant statistics. But her story is a great example of how people's attitudes about some issues are not merely something personal, but also political. (As demonstrated by the recent steps taken to ban the niqab here in NL.)
So in Krimpen, there were only cream or grey dresses.
What does a white dress signify? In marriages in many cultures, it symbolises the virginity of the bride. "Radiance" and "glow" of her face are also related to this, at least in a culture that I can claim some understanding of.
Y attributed this missing-white-dress phenomena to the many conservative Christians there. Since they know that practically no one nowadays 'saves themselves' for marriage (you know what I mean, right? I can't say it out loud, but I have to use euphemisms and hedge around it), they don't want to sell white dresses because these are only for virgins!
Of course there's no way to be counting the number of conservative Christians there and come to a conclusion based on significant statistics. But her story is a great example of how people's attitudes about some issues are not merely something personal, but also political. (As demonstrated by the recent steps taken to ban the niqab here in NL.)
So in Krimpen, there were only cream or grey dresses.
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