Paradise Re-found

or "Vrolijk Kerstfeest" as they say in Dutch.

Today is the Dutch's celebration of Christmas. It happens every year on the eve of December 6th (which is the feast day for Saint Nicholas). Tonight is called 'pakjesavond' or the evening of packages.

Careful... you might find this hysterically racist (SFW):


Gotta love the Dutch.  The next main holiday I'll post about is Queen's Day which is in the spring time.

Number One: Last night, the Dutch celebrated their version of Halloween called St. Martin's Day (Nov 11). The little children (ages 4-10) walk around with lanterns. They knock on all the doors and then sing a special st. martin song. It was the most adoable thing to open up our door hear the little Dutch kids singing.

On a more bizarre note, later that night, I was going through the Red Light District. I was walking around with our company's tour that was running that night. On the tour, we stopped by the Old Church and talk about it. Now the church is inside the Red Light District with 'ladies in the windows' right next door. All of a sudden we see and hear a group of little children singing, "St. Martins, St. Martins, ..." These young children were basically trick-or-treating with the prostitutes. The whole tour group died laughing.

Number Two: My roommates are downstairs watching Dutch TV. Earlier I was watching some of the shows with them. My favorite one was a Dutch reality dating show whose title translated to "Farmers Looking to Find a Wife." They take these lonely farmers from way out in the countryside and send them to Amsterdam to find a bride. OMG I was just speechless.

More to come in a future post: Just wait til I tell you about the Dutch version of St. Nick. :-)