Day of Hearts or Hertjesdag in Haarlem and Amsterdam
Day of Hearts or Hertjesdag in Haarlem and Amsterdam is held on August 19. It is celebrated on the third Monday in August. This event in the second decade of the month August is annual. Help us
It is suspected that the name is a bastardisation of 'hertjesdag' (Deer Day). This was a festival where in the forests around Haarlem deer (herten) hunting could be done by the ordinary people, which was normally reserved for nobility. The deer were then taken to Amsterdam and roasted in the streets.
Originally Hartjesdag (Day of Hearts) was a festival celebrated on the third Monday in August in the Dutch areas of Haarlem and Bloemendaal and in various parts of Amsterdam, particularly around the Haarlemmerplein, in the Jordaan, and in the Dapperbuurt. On Hartjesdag fires were kindled and children collected money. Later it developed itself into a type of cross-dressing carnival, where men dressed as women, and women dressed as men.
During the German occupation in 1943 the Hartjesdag became prohibited, and after the war it eventually became obsolete.
In 1997 a local committee in the Zeedijk, Amsterdam, decided to see if they could revive the tradition. Each year since then, the festival has flourished into a two-day event on the 3rd weekend in August.
Similar holidays and events, festivals and interesting facts
Clown Day in Netherlands on August 3 (In Netherlands, they call it Internationale clown dag);
Bonaire Flag Day on September 6 (The flag of Bonaire was adopted in 1984);
Open Monumentendag in Netherlands on September 14 (second weekend of September);
Prinsjesdag in Netherlands or Budget Day on September 17 (celebrated on the third Tuesday in September);
Festival in Leiden, Netherlands on October 3 (Leidens Ontzet - tradition since 1886 in honor of the end of the siege in 1574);