Fiesta! We also want to have 8 of these foreign holidays in Zoetermeer

National Sleepyhead Day

The Finnish people are not strange, but special. Since the Middle Ages, the Finns have celebrated Unikeonpäivä, or National Sleepyhead Day, on July 27. This day was not created to honor sleepyheads, on the contrary! If you wake up last on this day, your housemates can dump you in the river with your still sleepy head. Laugh. Do you want to?

Yi Peng

Once a year, the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai is bathed in thousands of lights. The Yi Peng holiday takes place during the full moon, usually in November, and symbolizes the letting go of feelings of hatred and resentment. Thai people make lanterns from rice paper and bamboo and let them drift with the wind. The result: an unimaginable light spectacle. And a clean slate. Do you already see this above the Noord Aa?

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Day of the Children

Çocuk Bayramı is Turkish for Children’s Day. On this national holiday on April 23, children are in charge. These dorks can do all kinds of things: eat sweets, decorate classrooms and even take over the government. On Children’s Day, the president and ministers make way for a number of tiny representatives. They discuss the important children’s issues themselves. So, you hear it Willem: move over!

Halloween

Okay, there are some Halloween parties taking place in Zoetermeer on October 31st. But our witch costumes are nothing compared to the horror festival in Salem, the city in the American state of Massachusetts where the infamous witch trials took place. The residents pull out all the stops every day in October. Yes, the entire month is dedicated to scary parades and haunted houses. Brrrrr!

Day of the Dead

While Halloween is all about driving away ghosts, Mexicans welcome them on Día de los Muertos: the Day of the Dead. On November 1 and 2, Mexicans set up altars and offerings for the spirits of their deceased loved ones. They also sweep cemeteries clean to dance in them. Sound scary? It’s not. Think of it as a celebration of the people who are missed.

Heritage Day

Since the nineteenth century, South Africans have celebrated the country’s diverse cultural heritage on this holiday. How? By en masse on September 28 braai to light. The braai, or barbecue, is very popular throughout South Africa and that connects!

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Holi

In honor of spring and love, Hindus celebrate Holi in March. You have probably seen the images of this festival in India and Nepal. People take to the streets en masse to sprinkle each other with powder paint in all kinds of different colors. After a few minutes they look like a rainbow. Do you already see it in the Stadshart?

Labor Day

Yes, we have Labor Day. Do we celebrate it? No! However, many European countries around us and even the Caribbean islands within our own kingdom do: on May 1, many people get a day off. Not to celebrate their careers, but to commemorate the American demonstrations of May 1, 1890 against the nine-hour working day. Thanks to their efforts, our working day is an hour shorter than before. Heroes! Will you take to the streets of Zoetermeer to get free?