Amateur photographer Roel Lubbers from Roden took photos of the Easter fire for years in his birthplace Terheijl, a hamlet near Nietap. He did that from 1975 to 1990. “I tried to maintain that every year,” he says. “This photo book thus provides a beautiful picture of Easter fires over the years.”
Because quite a bit has changed. “Nowadays they have taps, but that was not the case in our time,” Roel gives as an example. “We did everything by hand.”
Roel remembers that the branches for the Easter fire were brought to the hill in a farm wagon. “We started with a small bump and it got higher and higher. On top of the bump stood one of our men, who was ‘the boss’ of the bump. He made sure that it was all nice and round.”
The rules regarding Easter fires have now become stricter, but in the past everything was still allowed, according to Roel. “We threw bicycle tires, mattresses and paint cans on it.”
He captured it all with his small compact camera. It was one he could easily put in his pocket. “This is my greatest friend,” he says over the camera. He thinks the most beautiful photo he took of the Easter fires is one of a large bump with a pole in the foreground. “I paid attention to the composition. Placing something in the foreground gives the photo more depth.”
Because the area surrounding the village became a water extraction area in 1990, the celebrations stopped there. Roel thinks it’s a shame that the Easter fire is becoming increasingly a rarity in his region. “The overview of Easter fires from RTV Drenthe shows that there are almost no Easter fires in the area anymore. All traditions are slowly ending, and I think that is a great shame.”
