E.T.E.B.O.N. (Eigen Tabak en bollen om niet), a fraternity (corps) of the students of the Mennonite Seminary at Amsterdam, formerly connected with the fraternities of the University of Amsterdam, was founded on 7 May 1814. The association song is the Latin Patriam Canimus. Its colors are red, white, and blue—-the colors of the Netherlands. Nearly all the ministers of the Dutch Mennonite churches were members of this corps as students. The records of its meetings are written in verse. Admission is bound with certain mysterious ceremonies. Formerly a pilgrimage was made every two years to Hotel de Grebbe at Rhenen on the Rhine.The 25th, 50th, 75th, 80th, 100th, 125th, and 140th anniversaries were celebrated, and Gedenkschriften were published on a number of these occasions. At the end of World War I (ca. 1918) the E.T.E.B.O.N. broke its connection with the student fraternities, and has lost much of its importance.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 253. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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