Christmas & New Years Dutch Style!
2013 was to be signed off with my first Christmas and New Years outside of New Zealand. Keeping in theme with the rest of this part of the Odyssey and through the generosity of the locals in the Netherlands, I was lucky enough to be immersed in the Dutch festive traditions
Moving into my new abode at the Tjeerdsma household in Nijeveen on Christmas Eve was the perfect start to the traditional holiday season. While back in New Zealand children were waking up on Christmas Day and tearing into their presents from Santa Claus, Kerstman had also delivered gifts to be opened here in the Netherlands. Tradition here dictates presents are opened on Christmas Eve and due to the 12-hour time difference, people in Zeeland (a province of the Netherlands) and New Zealand were experiencing the joy of giving at the same time.
Food and family also play a big part in the Christmas feest, particularly eating too much just like everywhere else at this time. On Christmas eve I joined my new hosts in eating a mixture of traditional and modern festive food, all to excess of course! During Christmas time almond paste or marzipan becomes a big ingredient in many foods. One that particularly caught my taste buds on Christmas Eve was the Kerstbol, Christmas fruit bread with a line of almond paste through the middle served with a higher fat butter. The very tasty ‘Stoofperen met rode wijn’ (pears in red wine) also deserve a special mention.
Moving into my new abode at the Tjeerdsma household in Nijeveen on Christmas Eve was the perfect start to the traditional holiday season. While back in New Zealand children were waking up on Christmas Day and tearing into their presents from Santa Claus, Kerstman had also delivered gifts to be opened here in the Netherlands. Tradition here dictates presents are opened on Christmas Eve and due to the 12-hour time difference, people in Zeeland (a province of the Netherlands) and New Zealand were experiencing the joy of giving at the same time.
Food and family also play a big part in the Christmas feest, particularly eating too much just like everywhere else at this time. On Christmas eve I joined my new hosts in eating a mixture of traditional and modern festive food, all to excess of course! During Christmas time almond paste or marzipan becomes a big ingredient in many foods. One that particularly caught my taste buds on Christmas Eve was the Kerstbol, Christmas fruit bread with a line of almond paste through the middle served with a higher fat butter. The very tasty ‘Stoofperen met rode wijn’ (pears in red wine) also deserve a special mention.
On first Christmas Day (December 25), I joined the Buiten family for more merriment. After sipping on some Prosecco it was time for brunch. Once again consuming an excess of breads, salads, cheeses and meats; almost like one giant Dutch antipasto feast. Another tasty bread experience was the sugar bread from Friesland. The highlight today though was the gigantic trifle and meringue like pavlova. Neither of these are Dutch but both are always on the Christmas table back at my nana’s house in New Zealand. Nico and Lamitta had gone to some effort to acquire anything close to a good old kiwi pav and both deserts were certainly a highlight of the day.
Second Christmas Day (December 26) equaled third Christmas feast for me. Back at the Tjeerdsma household it was time to celebrate the season with the other side of the family. On the menu tonight was an older Dutch tradition that is becoming popular again. Gourmetten is basically a cook-it-yourself experience. Ingredients, vegetables and meat, are prepared before and laid out on the table ready to cook. The cookers on the table are then fired up and each person has their own little pan to fill with whatever your taste buds desire. Cuts of chicken and beef, mini burger patties, onion, mushrooms and capsicum turned this Gourmetten into a Dutch table barbeque. With my little pan full of goodies, it was onto the hot plate for some sizzling fun. The pans are quite small so once round one is cooked, round two is loaded into the pan for either frying on the hot plate or grilling under the element. The whole experience is wonderfully fun as everyone is chatting away while cooking, making this a truly social eating experience. Following dinner it was time to finish off the Sjoelen (Dutch table shuffleboard, which I wrote about in our trip preparation) championship. After I stormed to the lead in the first round, experience and knowledge of local terrain took over as hosts Harmen and Margriet led after three rounds, Margriet one point in front. In a controversial decision, a fourth round was agreed upon and Harmen cleared out to triumphantly raise the trophy.
Topping the evening off was a catch up with my family in New Zealand over Skype, watching my two and a half year old niece show off her dancing skills!
I am very grateful to both the Tjeerdsma and Buiten families for adopting this kiwi korfball orphan over Christmas.
Topping the evening off was a catch up with my family in New Zealand over Skype, watching my two and a half year old niece show off her dancing skills!
I am very grateful to both the Tjeerdsma and Buiten families for adopting this kiwi korfball orphan over Christmas.
New Years in the Netherlands can only be described as explosive! While fireworks are to the fore after dark, the explosive toys come out in the morning on December 31. Carbid Schieten is a very Dutch tradition where old milk churns are turned into mini-canons. This involves putting carbide with a little water into the churn and then blocking the top with either the lid of the churn or often an old football. The carbide releases acetylene gas, filling the enclosed chamber of the churn. Once enough time has passed you light the gas on fire via a prepared torch hole that is blocked using a plug with a wick. The explosion propels the lid or ball often huge distances into the field, while a brief but bright flame leaps from the churn with a deep, thundering bang. People will often have a whole rank of these shooters lined up and set them off one after the other. The more creative have made much larger canons from other pieces of farm equipment, making for a rather impressive sight and sound. In Nijeveen I could hear volleys of these deep thunderous booms at regular intervals throughout the day until dark. We found a field just down the road where a group had set up in a field with their rank of about ten shooters. I also joined some of the lads from DOS ’46 at another park in Nijeveen. They had three churns and one giant canon emblazoned with ‘Nijeveen’ on the side. In chilly conditions, there were great laughs and satisfaction every time another football was propelled out over the park. Obviously there is a certain level of danger involved with such a tradition, a tradition that no doubt would be illegal in New Zealand similar to the good old spud guns!
Punctuating the explosiveness of the day was the consumption of Oliebollen, the Dutch doughnut. These round, deep-fried dough balls either with or without raisins are consumed in their millions over the holiday period in the Netherlands, in fact an estimated 130 million in total! I had too many for my own good but they were pretty tasty when topped with powder sugar.
Now, on to the fireworks. Earlier in the day we paid a visit to the local shop selling fireworks. The size of the fireworks for sale, not to mention the cost, was a huge surprise compared to what is available in NZ. Skyrockets and huge multi shot boxes were in the mix. It would be easy to part with well over 200 euros if you were inclined and apparently the Dutch part with over 70 million euros for this explosive experience. Come midnight in Nijeveen, I could soon see where all that money went. Flashes of light and fluorescent colours lit up the skies all over this small village. I have never seen such prolific firework use before. It looked and sounded like every house in Nijeveen was sending fireworks into the sky. I think the sound would have been similar to some of the bombing raids of WWII as the constant flashes and bangs lasted for almost an hour. 2014 was definitely welcomed in with a bang! (Well thousands of bangs!)
Punctuating the explosiveness of the day was the consumption of Oliebollen, the Dutch doughnut. These round, deep-fried dough balls either with or without raisins are consumed in their millions over the holiday period in the Netherlands, in fact an estimated 130 million in total! I had too many for my own good but they were pretty tasty when topped with powder sugar.
Now, on to the fireworks. Earlier in the day we paid a visit to the local shop selling fireworks. The size of the fireworks for sale, not to mention the cost, was a huge surprise compared to what is available in NZ. Skyrockets and huge multi shot boxes were in the mix. It would be easy to part with well over 200 euros if you were inclined and apparently the Dutch part with over 70 million euros for this explosive experience. Come midnight in Nijeveen, I could soon see where all that money went. Flashes of light and fluorescent colours lit up the skies all over this small village. I have never seen such prolific firework use before. It looked and sounded like every house in Nijeveen was sending fireworks into the sky. I think the sound would have been similar to some of the bombing raids of WWII as the constant flashes and bangs lasted for almost an hour. 2014 was definitely welcomed in with a bang! (Well thousands of bangs!)
Hopefully I can upload the carbid schieten video soon!
While you are waiting you could check this out for some more light-hearted ideas about Dutch culture: http://stuffdutchpeoplelike.com/