Although the celebration of Alkmaar’s Relief now begins long before October 8, the first real commemoration remains the depiction of the expulsion of the Spaniards and the laying of wreaths at the statue of Victorientje in the Victorie Park in Alkmaar. Many children also took part in the annual lantern parade.
This year again, it could count on a large audience. “There were so many people and it was worded so beautifully”, mayor Anja Schouten said Alkmaar Central know. She also had a message: “We can only celebrate if we also remember well and we have started very well.”
More than a thousand primary school students were now waiting on the Waagplein for the mayor to wish the procession a pleasant journey. The same happened at the Grote Kerk, where another thousand children are waved goodbye by an exuberant Frits Westerkamp, chairman of the 8 October Association: “Soon there will be 2,400 children walking through the city with a lantern, how beautiful is that?”
It started from two locations because the number of registrations for the lantern parade was too large to start from one location.