You Know It’s Celebration Time In Holland When…

Celebration Time In Holland

It does not matter if it is Koningsdag, The world Cup, Carnival or any other event that involves national pride, when the Dutch celebrate they go all out.

Celebration Time In Holland

1) The country’s economy gets a sudden boost from the sales of any product containing the colour orange.

2) All products that can be make orange, will be orange.

3) In addition, food that really should not be orange suddenly becomes orange anyway.

4) As the special event draws closer the amount of orange increases until it reaches critical mass. This makes the use of orange camouflage a realistic and necessary tactic for any foreign country planning to invade during the celebrations.

5) There is no alcohol left anywhere in The Netherlands. The only option is to cross the border to Belgium if you want a drink.

6) You suddenly become aware of Dutch music being played ever where you go (and a lot of Dutch people singing along to it very, very loudly).

7) It seems as if every man, woman and child living within the Netherlands is trying to fit into the same public space because it has a television providing live coverage.

8) Car horns can suddenly be heard sounding over the entire country despite a lack of traffic jams.

9) The Dutch let go of the fact that their country is called The Netherlands simply so that they can say ‘Hup Holland Hup’ (unless they really are only supporting the West province of the country).

Do you know any other signs to look out for when it’s celebration time in Holland?

Stuart

Stuart is an accident prone Englishman who has been living in the Netherlands since 2001. Even his move to the country was an unintentional accident, the result of replying to a cryptic job advertisement he found one day in a local British magazine. Since then he has learned to love the Dutch (so much so that he married one of them) and now calls the country home. He started the blog Invading Holland in 2006 as a place to share his strange stories of language misunderstandings, cultural confusions and his own accident prone nature.

22 Responses

  1. Alison says:

    It was fantastic watching the sea of orange going past our place yesterday. You almost don’t need to watch the matches; you can just listen to the large crowd responses throughout the city and tell whether something good or bad happened. And yes, the singing. So much singing!

    • Invader Stu says:

      That’s how I tell what is going on as I travel home on the train if there is a match at the same time. You can hear the cheers or sobbing as you pass each town and city.

  2. Let’s just be thankful that the national colour isn’t blue or green or, worse still, purple or black. Just think what those food colourings would do your system!

  3. 10) As the echoing cheers lasting for several hours can be heard from kilometers away, neighboring countries have resorted to making pleas towards U.N. asking the Dutch to tone down the festivities.

    That or resign themselves to join the Oranje partying. :)

  4. jo says:

    You are right, watching the game is not required to know how it is going. Just note the number of times that you hear fireworks and that would be the number of goals scored…when the fireworks continue and this time you hear cars go by with singing people and horns blowing…THAT indicates the end of the match where NL won. :)

    • Invader Stu says:

      Yep. So far that has happened where I live for every match the Dutch team has played.

  5. dragonlady says:

    . Congratulations Holland. But save something in case you win the cup (I have a friend who has you down as one of his favorites.)
    I remember when England won the cup (long ago in the far and distant past) ours was a multi coloured celebration.

    • Invader Stu says:

      The Dutch people will lose their minds if they win. Last time they celebrated like they won for coming second.

  6. Rosie says:

    This could clearly be my mother-in-law. She had no interest in the World Cup until the Dutch kicked the ball. Now there’s an orange shrine.

  7. iooryz says:

    At least you joined the party by dying your hair…
    oh wait, it’s always that colour, isn’t it? ;)

  8. Deepa says:

    Don’t forget that people do actually turn a rather festive shade of orange themselves. Or maybe it’s just the fake tans they all get before going on holiday for even more tanning.

    • Invader Stu says:

      I hope so. I don’t know what the ramifications would be if the Dutch actually evolved into the colour orange.

  9. Likeahike says:

    You mean tompoezen aren’t supposed to be orange?

  10. Voorbij says:

    Maar hopelijk is het met een paar uur voorbij….

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