Tag Archives: folklore
What are Witte Wieven? Posted by Sten on Oct 26, 2021
Like many other originally Germanic places, the Netherlands has some folklore that hails from this time. Today, I want to briefly discuss witte wieven, a mythical figure that is still used in the Dutch language today. What are witte wieven, and what does it mean these days? Witte Wieven – Mythical Dutch Ghosts Witte wieven is dialect…
How True Are Weerspreuken? Posted by Sten on Feb 27, 2018
Last month, we looked at weerspreuken – weather proverbs. We tried to predict the weather with the weerbericht (weather forecast) for the next 14 days. The weerspreuken made predictions for February as well – let’s have a look at whether the weerspreuken from January about February checked out… How True Were The Weerspreuken For February? Januari zonder regen, is voor de boerenstand een zegen…
Let’s Predict The Weather With Weerspreuken! Posted by Sten on Jan 15, 2018
It is January, the start of 2018. It feels like the worst days of winter are behind us, and de lente (spring) is upon us. The weather can only get better, right? Niet zo snel! (Not so fast!) Throughout the centuries, people have come up with hundreds of weerspreuken (weather proverbs), some of which are actually true! Let’s look at the…
The Dutch Book Surprisingly Few Dutch People Know About Posted by tiffany on Mar 21, 2014
Last month, Dutch Olympic speed skating coach Jillert Anema made waves in America when he suggested that the country’s poor performance at the Olympics has much more to do with America’s obsession with (American) football over all other sports than it did with their high-tech Under Armor skating suits. After Anema made the remarks in…