Leijpark013

@leijpark013 · 15 Jul 2023

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Leijpark 013 Meikever

Written by Thierry P. Dijens
It is already June, but a few late May beetles are still flying around and we found one in the Leijpark. The children's game of catching a beetle, connecting a wire to a leg and using the animal as a live kite is no longer played by modern children. Not only because today's youth don't know what a May beetle is, but also because it now falls under “animal suffering”. No one used to know that concept, but times have changed.
Now I remember my mom's stories. She once told me that they referred to the May beetle with the name “mulder” or “mulderke”. When they let such a beetle fly in front of them, they sang:
“Mulderke, mulderke counts your money
and then fly again
If you don't fly, I'll call the fox
and then I let go out of twine.”
It wasn't until years later, when I became interested in the Dutch language, that I understood its origins. A mulder is a miller. And a miller had to work hard for his money, so he counted his money regularly. What does this have to do with the May beetle? A May beetle is covered with tiny white hairs, making it look like the animal is covered in powder. At the time, a miller was literally covered in flour. So the two look alike and the May beetle quickly became mulderke.
There are few old-fashioned millers left, but fortunately, the craft is still in vogue or is being revived here and there. There is currently no active flour mill in Tilburg, but a dive into the archives shows that there have been more than thirty mills. Street names that still remind us of this are Molenstraat, Molenbochtstraat and Rosmolen Square. Perhaps our city will also restore the craft in the near future.
By the way, there are also fewer May beetles than before, but the beetle is not endangered. Beetles mostly fly at night, so the chance that we'll run into one is a privilege.
I love these kinds of connections, between old professions, today's nature and language as a binding factor; the cement between culture and nature. And it's also so wonderfully Brabant. Those stories from the past were and there are a lot in them. An old story tells of a time when beetles were still found in large numbers. Children went to collect them, took them to grandmother, who then rubbed the beetles finely into the mortar! The resulting slurry was then mixed with pork fat, boiled well water was added and the whole thing was poured through a colander onto thick slices of white bread. It doesn't sound appealing, but this seems to be very close to lobster soup in terms of taste. Of course, it was priceless for the common man; fortunately, grandmother knew what to do. That is no longer possible these days, the May beetle is now a protected species. So let's enjoy the May beetle that brings old stories back to the limelight and then lets her fly again.


#park #maybeetle