Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Celebrating milestones during development?

[luk jonckheere (L.Jonckheere]

Hello,

Here in Cohousing 'La Grande Cense' near Brussels develoment phase is still
going on and we take every opportunity to celebrate. Usually around abundant
meals and glasses of wine and sometimes champaign.

When we bought the farm (in 2005) we went to a restaurant with the former
owners and the notary (=attorney in the US?). It was a lot of fun.

Later on we had a ritual referring to traditional customs that used to be
done in our region. We 'expelled all the bad spirits' on the site en in the
buildings by going around with burning torches and making lots of noise with
all kind off kitchen ustensils. Children and adults both enjoyed it very
much. Afterwards there was a campfire evening.

Each time when another few units were sold, there was a celebration again,
especially for welcoming the new members.

Throughout the year we celebrate at other occasions : St Niklaas on dec 6th
(=like your Santa), Christmas, St valentine, and so on.

Some of the party's are dancing and music party's, others are sing a longs,
or just eating, drinking and chatting.

Once a year we organise an open house (at the building site) for the
neighbours.

The last two years we did a 'building camp' during eastern holiday (2 weeks)
en during every summer holyday (4 weeks) on the week days. This is for
demolition, gardening, cleaning up the site, etc.. with excellent food for
the workers, as we have some good cooks, and others that keep improving.
At the end of each camp there was also a big celebration. Last summer with a
talent show in the afternoon (songs, sketches, jokes, ...).

When the building permit came through we had another feast, with barbecue as
well as vegetarian dishes. And champaign for that occasion.

Our most recent celebration was the 'laying of the first brick' (=equivalent
of your groundbreaking in the US). Local official, speeches, a special song
for the circumstance, a folk music quartet, 2 mime players, champaign once
more, cakes and pies and nicnacs, folk dancing, all the ingredients were
there.

It seems important to me do distinguish the aims of the celebrations.
1- group cohesion
2- getting to know each other better
3- make us better known in the neighbourhood, creating goodwill and allready
familiarising before moving in
4- make us better known with the local authorities, also creating goodwill
5- getting media attention (press, TV, ...) for credibility, goodwill, and
for promotion of the cohousing idea in our country (because we believe in it
and want to make the public know, and for getting better laws and
regulations for cohousing in the future)
6- just having fun

Different mixes of aims require different kinds of activity and amount of 
effort. And
it is good as a group to know what we are doing.

Kind regards,
Luk Jonckheere
Cohousing 'La Grande Cense', Belgium
www.lagrandecense.be
www.bloggen.be/lagrandecense