Orange Madness!

Since I’ve been back in the Netherland, I’ve been dressed in orange way more than I usually do in a year. Normally I do not even wear orange (why should I if the Dutch football team is not playing, or when the King does not has his birthday?). However, at this time I wear orange. And not only a shirt, I wear orange earrings, orange dress, orange socks, orange hair elastics, orange bracelets, orange hats, orange glasses and I am still in the run for an orange bra. Because if you are not entirely dressed in orange, you are not supporting the Dutch team. Thinking back on the perfect pass from Sneijder, providing a great chance for van Persie, that he missed miserably or the times the crossbar and post were hit… That was all because someone in the Netherlands forgot to put on his orange shirt and thought his/her orange glasses were sufficient. I tell you: ‘no they were not! Put on your orange shirts, helmets, feathers, big boobie costume or cheese hat, because your outfit has big influences on the dribbles (and diving) of Robben, the running stamina of Kuyt or the defensive skills of ‘concrete’ Ron. Because the boys in the Dutch team, in the Netherlands often referred to as ‘our boys’, could feel our everlasting supporting skills. We think ‘our boys’ would definitely score when we hang the orange flags in, around and on top of our house or when we paint our cars in orange. And maybe that is our way of superstition, but don’t you dare to mess with it. Don’t you dare to say something about the new orange gowns, or the orange hamsters from the supermarket, because someone, no everyone, would send you straight to Germany (not to Belgium, they are our football friends). And I have to say, I like the nationalistic feeling in the Netherlands. Although I know I have to hate the World Cup because of all the bad things happening while building it up (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Er_mwgfW_Q) and all the money wasted on it while it could be spend better, still I love the feeling when I go out the door in my orange outfit and everybody is shouting ‘Hup Holland’ and take you in for a party. On these days I do not only think that the football players on the television are persons I have known my whole life (although I think Robben lives closer to my friends in Munich and de Jong lives closer to my friends in Milan), I even think every person dressed in orange is my friend.
As I have learned in Denmark, the Dutch like to be negative about a lot of things in contrary to the positive Danes. But when ‘our boys’ are performing very well on the World Cup, everybody is positive about anything. Are you stuck in a traffic-jam? Just put on some Dutch football music and shout Holland and no-one will be angry anymore. Are you having a fight with your neighbour about the fence in your garden? Just hang some orange flags on the fence and cheer for Holland, this will bury the hatchet for one month. And although some Dutch do not like certain immigrants in the Netherlands. If they are dressed in orange these days, they are definitely treated like a native.
It is dull and completely exaggerating how the Dutch react, but whatever... I certainly enjoyed watching the World Cup matches with my international friends on the big screen and celebrate the victories in Aalborg but I love the atmosphere and I certainly enjoy watching it in the Netherlands as well. I secretly hope we will win this Wednesday so the Dutch support will be much bigger and more fulsome than it already is. Hup Holland!



Ps. If you go to the Netherlands these days, make sure you are dressed in orange, because you have a way better time than when you dress in a shirt with light-blue/white stripes.