In the Netherlands we have quite a few traditions, some traditions that have been a point of discussion over the years. For example, there is the tradition of "Sinterklaas". Sinterklaas is a Christian celebration that is mainly focused on children. On December 6th, Sinterklaas has his birthday and gives presents to all children, except if you were not good as a child. Then you run the risk of having to go to Spain :)
(By the way, it seems that Dutch immigrants brought the tradition of Sinterklaas to America in the 17th century. In America he is called Santa Claus and his appearance has been adapted to American culture.).
Sinterklaas and black pete
While Santa Claus gets help from Elves in America, in the Netherlands Sinterklaas gets help from Black Pete. The story goes that Black Pete is black because he crawls through all the chimneys to bring presents to children, which in that sense is also innocent. For years now, there have been demonstrations during Sinterklaas by groups that consider Black Pete a racist phenomenon. Sinterklaas (white) has servants (black) working for him. This is, with the Dutch slave past, no longer accepted. On the one hand I understand that, on the other hand I also have problems with it because people do not put the tradition into perspective, what is the origin, what is the meaning. Black Pete used to be really black, for a few years now there have also been soot-smeared Petes. The stripes on the Petes' faces emphasize the sliding down the chimney.
But times change so maybe traditions do too. In any case, it is important to be able to continue to have a conversation about this with everyone. Tolerance and acceptance.
Another tradition that is under fire is the fireworks on New Year's Eve. As in so many countries, a lot of fireworks are set off during New Year's Eve. I remember from the past (a long time ago lol) that we bought firecrackers with a whole group of friends and then walked through the neighborhood in the days before New Year's Eve and set off firecrackers. We lived for that the whole year. In recent years, firecrackers and rockets have been banned in the Netherlands, they were said to cause too many accidents. Now I'm not a doctor and I don't work in a hospital, but with the firecrackers we used to have, you could at most end up with a sore hand. In that sense, you do see a change in the severity of fireworks, where in the Netherlands it is mainly the illegal fireworks from countries such as Poland and Bulgaria. For example, there is the Cobra6, which is a firecracker but with the power of a hand grenade. It is unbelievable but true, this is almost a weapon of war. This does indeed cause a lot of accidents, with the (sad) statistics being that victims of an accident with such a Cobra6 have to undergo amputation of a limb in 80% of the cases. In recent years, this fireworks has also increasingly been linked to attacks committed in the criminal circuit. For relatively little money, enormous bombs are built that are hung on doors of houses by underage runners with all the consequences that entails. That is becoming a real plague.
Another problem that has been going on for a few years and which is why the government is pushing for a fireworks ban is the violence against emergency workers. Apparently a whole group finds it acceptable to throw (heavy) fireworks at firefighters, ambulance personnel and police while carrying out their work, the reason is often alcohol in combination with fireworks and acting tough. As far as I'm concerned, this should be punished severely, unacceptable. The sad thing is that here too a small group spoils it for the majority. Most people want to end the old year with beautiful fireworks and enjoy the evening and each other. Now some cities organize fireworkshows to give people a great time. For instance, the show in Rotterdam
There are now fireworks bans in a number of cities, but the government cannot enforce this because they do not have the capacity to do so. So whether that will work is the question, perhaps the serious accidents that happen every year with illegal fireworks will cause this. I just read the news sites and saw that (unfortunately) a 13-year-old boy died during New Year's Eve after setting off illegal fireworks, imagine receiving the news at home as a parent.......
Then there is another tradition that is very important to me :) That is baking oliebollen. Oliebollen are (sweet) dough balls that are fried and typically eaten on New Year's Eve. It is a real Dutch tradition. Around New Year's Eve, you see a stall on almost every street corner where they bake and sell oliebollen.
For about 10 or 15 years, my father-in-law, brother-in-law and I have been baking oliebollen at home. We bake for almost the entire family and everyone can place their order :). We always bake on December 31st and start at 10 o'clock (with the baking, the preparations start earlier of course). While baking, we always have a drink, Apfelkorn or Jagermeister. The nice thing is that more and more friends and family come by during the day to have a drink and eat an oliebol, so it's cozy all around. It's such a well-known tradition among our friends and our sons' friends that my oldest son's friends came over this year while my son himself was celebrating New Year's Eve in Copenhagen with his girlfriend. That's great.
What we often do is send everyone a text message two weeks before New Year's Eve asking how many oliebollen they want, so we can at least take that into account when buying the ingredients. So that we have enough for everyone. :)
This year it was a great success again, although this (now) old man has to take a nap on the couch after baking to be able to have a nice evening hahaha.
Do you have any typical traditions?
Have a nice day,
Peter