Popular holiday flower to grow confidence
There she is. Standing tall, she is pure and fills the room with warmth. She brings color to these grey and dark winter days. That extra spark you need to get in the festive holiday mood. Like the poinsettia, the Amaryllis is a popular holiday flower. Unlike the Christmas star she has secret powers.Read more
Gouda celebration crafts & food - a family day trip
There is no better place to taste traditional Dutch food than the province South Holland. Dutch cheese and stroopwafels are in the top 3 of things to eat in Gouda. Before we literally get our hands on these artisanal products, let's start our mini Gouda celebration of crafts & food by diving into Gouda and her history of handmade products.
Keukenhof day trip: fruit blossom & plucking
This Keukenhof day trip is not what you expect. Yes, in spring you'll be surrounded by flowers, but it's not just the tulips. This is another off the beaten path travel tip in the countryside around the world famous flower garden. Less crowded, charming places which are great for a family activity or just to bring out the child in you in spring or fall.
July flower makes you winner Dutch sporting event
Day four. The last miles. Your feet are full of blisters, your knees ache and every muscle in your body is twitching. You see the finish line. The crowds cheer. You’re going to give it all you got. With tears in your eyes you reach the finish. You did it! Overwhelmed with emotion, you receive your prize: the July flower that makes every participant a winner.
Orange festival in Holland
It’s one big orange festival in Holland. The orange craze on King’s Day is nothing compared to the one during sport events such as the European Football Championship, World Cup or the Olympics. Read more
Sleeping in Delft during Pentecost
Early Saturday morning. A couple of students wake you up by loudly ringing their bicycle bells right in front of your door. This way sleeping in Delft during Pentecost is impossible! With the sanddust stil in your eyes, you look outside. The group carries big crates of Dutch doughnut look-a-likes. Your curiosity is sparked & you decide to follow them.
Whitsun sleepy head
In West Holland the Saturday before Whit Sunday is known as Luilak. It was an exciting day for young people. They rose early morning to make noise, shake up the city and wake up those who were sleeping long and being lazy – the so called ‘luilakken’. It was the time to say goodbye to winter, clean the house and welcome spring. There was no room for lazy people.
Sleeping in Delft for the holidays
In the 19th century this was still a decent festivity, if you came to work late, you had to buy your colleagues some drinks. That was it. Like any celebration, Luilak took on a different form as time went by. Just like New Year’s Day nowadays, the youngsters started disbehaving. Riots & vandalism became a common sight on the Saturday morning before Whit Sunday. There was no way to get any rest in any of the cities where the celebration. Government & municipalities looked for solutions, created their own parades and bonfires. Sleeping in Delft during Pentecost became a challenge and while a group of Delftians lay awake at night an idea emerged.
Food is the solution to sleeping well in Delft
For centuries bakeries made a special treat for Pentecost: de luilakkenbol, a sweet bun similar to a Dutch doughnut. This group of Delftians came up with the idea to create a parade for the youngsters. At the end a full load of luilakbollen would be thrown on top of them. It became a huge success and it was the start of an annual Delft festival called the Delft Bun Saturday or Delftse bollenzaterdag.
Nowadays Luilak is not celebrated any more. Its means sleeping in Delft during Pentecost is relaxed and quiet. The luilakbol is not sold by Delft bakers. But, you can make them yourself, they're similar to the English scone.
Recipe for Pentecost luilakbol
- 40 grams of yeast
- 500 grams of flour ( of which 2/3 wheat flour and 1/3 rye flour)
- 250 grams of milk
- 10 grams of salt
- 20 grams of brown sugar
- 50 grams of butter
- 300 grams of raisins
- 100 grams of currants
- tea spoon of cinnamon
Step by step making of Delft bun
Mix the yeast with 4 spoons of lukewarm milk. Take the flour and mix it with the salt and sugar. Then make a little whole in the middle of the flour. Pour the melted butter in the yeast mix and add this to the flour. Knead until you have a smooth dough. Cover with a clean cloth and leave it to rise for 30 minutes.
Wash the raisins and currants and make sure they're dry. Then add them to the risen dough with the cinnamon. Knead and leave to rise for 15 minutes. Set the oven on 240°C. Out of the dough, make buns of about 60 grams. Put them on a well-buttered baking tray, cut each bun on 4 sides. Leave to rise for another 15 minutes. Then brush them with egg and bake them for 15 minutes. Eat them with butter and syrup (or jam).
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Sources of inspiration:
https://www.bakkersinbedrijf.nl/recept_artikelen/recept-luilakbollen
https://www.maxvandaag.nl/sessies/themas/terug-naar-toen/luilak-het-uitstervende-kwajongensfeest/
https://www.beleven.org/feest/luilak
Team building based on King's Day - 3 tips
Put on your orange dress, drink some Oranjebitter and get ready to sing the national anthem. The best way to bond is to celebrate a national holiday together. So, let's create that ultimate holiday feeling. Here are 3 tips team building based on King's Day in Holland.
National holiday to unite your team
Once upon a time there was a little princess called Wilhelmina. She lived in the Netherlands, a country that was extremely divided. People didn't want to do any activities together. Now, Wilhelmina celebrated her 5th birthday on August 31 1885. 'A great day for a national holiday', a newspaper thought. And so a new national holiday was born. It was called Princess Day and became a huge success. The Dutch people united, the nation was one.
I know it is a bit too much to ask you to create your own national holiday. It is a good idea to look at national holidays though. You can get inspiration on how to build & strengthen relationships . Let's have a look at King's Day!
Holiday feeling with old Dutch games: team building based on national celebration
The first tip for team building based on King's Day actually comes from Princess Day. In that time the holiday did not have the same dimension as nowadays. Focus was on strengthening relationships within your family & local community. That happened through games. Using these old Dutch games for teambuilding is perfect as rules are simple, you don't have to use your brain a lot. They're just a fun activity to do together and a way to release any tension. Best part is also that you feel like you're getting a taste of Dutch culture. Add some orange clothes and an orange drink (Oranjebitter) and you feel like you're on holiday.
Why the royal birthday & flower parades in the Netherlands are connected
As the years went by princess Wilhelmina got older. In September 1898 she became Queen of the Netherlands and so Princess Day became Queen's Day. Thanks to these two royal celebration; the birthday and the inauguration, the flower parades in the Netherlands became popular. Now, I let you think about it for a moment…Why is Wilhelmina’s birthday/ inauguration as Queen a good time for the flower parade? The answer is in the next blogpost.
Team building based on King's Day flower parade
Tip two on team building based on King's Day, is about these flower parades. Before WWII these flower processions were strongly connected to the royal family. Nowadays the processions are used to underline the local identity & the small community feeling. Now this team building tip decorate your bike, car or other vehicle. Set some rules before you start this activity. One of these rules should be about how you combine local, regional aspects with national cultural elements. What is typical of your city? What is unique about your family or friends? When you do this group activity with your colleagues, you can also include the corporate culture and team culture in these game rules. For complete instructions & customisation of this teambuilding activity based on King's Day, contact me or book the We are one on King's Day game activity.
Be like Dutch kids: sell what you love & they don't need
Another typical Dutch element of King's Day is the vrijmarkt, or garage sale/ flea market. This is one of the youngest traditions of the royal celebration. In the seventies, Beatrix was Queen. She is the mother of our present King Willem-Alexander and the granddaughter of Wilhelmina. She had married a German man and not everyone in the Netherlands liked that. Besides, you could again feel some tension building up in the Netherlands. The vrijmarkt already existed, but was not centrally organised. Here and there in the suburbs of Amsterdam and other Dutch cities these flea markets popped up. The idea was to bring these markets to the inner city centre, so the Dutch would get together in a central point. That worked!
How can you use this in a team building activity? The King's Day vrijmarkt is the ultimate way for kids to practise their entrepreneurship. So tip three in the team building based on King's Day is about negotiation skills. Try to find some traditions or habits in your family, group of friends or team that you like, but others dislike. Imagine these habits are one of the items you sell on the vrijmarkt. You are attached to them, they see no value. How would you sell these, the Dutch way?
Liked these 3 ideas? Then contact me for the full We are one on King's Day teambuilding game.
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https://youtu.be/lt2KSwzXFCE
The Dutch royalty & the kingfisher
Are you a colorful bird with mythical powers: steadfast and calm in bad weather? Do your feathers happen to be orange, white and blue? Congratulations! You’ve been chosen as a national symbol. The Dutch royalty & the kingfisher go back a long way. For William of Orange it was love at first sight. In his opinion the bird represented everything he stood for.
Nickname William of Orange
Nicknames can be a man’s best friend. William of Orange went into history as De Zwijger - the man who doesn’t - want to- speak. In English he is referred to as ‘The Silent’. In tense political situations he would remain calm and say very little. His opposers would depict him as unable to choose a side, make decisions and being astute There is an anecdote before the start of the Eighty Years of War which nicely shows how these traits: "The King (of France) talked on thus to Orange in the full conviction that he was aware of the secret agreement recently made with the Duke of Alba for the extirpation of heresy. But the Prince, subtle and adroit as he was, answered the good King in such a way as to leave him still under the impression that he, the Prince, knew all about the scheme proposed by Alba; and on this understanding the King revealed all the details of the plan which had been arranged between the King of Spain and himself for the rooting out and rigorous punishment of the heretics, from the lowest to the highest rank, and in this service the Spanish troops were to be mainly employed."
I am a rock
William the Silent wanted to be seen as the rock people could hold on to in times of trouble.
In 1568 the Netherlands was ruled by the King of Spain. William saw the effect of the King’s oppression and the raise of taxes on the Dutch people. In 1568 he started the Dutch revolt. It led to the Eighty Years of War - The war ended in 1648- In 1581, that was even during the revolt!, William got many of the provinces of the Netherlands to sign the Act of Abjuration. This Act was a declaration of independence of the United States of the Netherlands. During these years of war William lived by the motto: ‘Saevis tranquilus in undis’, calm in stormy waters. And this motto is linked to the Kingfisher.
The character the Dutch royalty & the kingfisher have in common
The great traits of the kingfisher first appear in a Greek myth. The bird would build its nest on top of the waves, proud, persistent and not afraid for wind or storm. Centuries of myths and legends followed untill Basilius the Great thought it nice to connect the motto ‘tranquillum esse media bruma’ - to be calm in the middle of a storm- to a picture of a kingfisher calmly sitting on its nest on stormy waters. Centuries later this motto was slightly adjusted by humanist Alciatus. In his Emblemata he speaks of ‘tranquilli in marmoris unda’ - calm in the marmor wave. The bird he speaks of, unfortunately, is a falcon. Nevertheless his work may have been brought to the attention of the Prince of Orange, aka William the Silent.
The other link between the Dutch royal family & the kingfisher
It was at that time that the link between the Dutch royal family & the kingfisher was first made. It was the peace loving, steadfast character of the bird that attracted William. Moreover the metallic blue bird with his orange breast and white stripes, was a perfect match with the colors of the House of Orange.
The Queen mother is calm
The kingfisher was a loyal companion on William the Silent’s journey to independence. Then he was forgotten. Queen Wilhelmina started using the motto again and had a kingfisher on her desk. And then,then William Alexander came. At the time of his coronation, 30 April 2013 he thanked his mother, Beatrix for her hard work and for being ‘calm in stormy waters’.
Royal Delft blue pottery and the kingfisher
The link between the Dutch royal family & the kingfisher is immortalised in the Royal Delft Blue plates King William Alexander had made for his 50th birthday. The royal earthenware collection depicts the bird peacefully moving around in a sea of blue. See if you can find the motto, it encircles the stamp on the backside of the pottery.
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The anecdote of William of Orange & the King of France is taken from https://fampeople.com/cat-william-the-silent_6
For this article I used the website of Royal Delft & my contacts there and Wikipedia
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