Hartjesdag

Hartjesdag used to be celebrated on the third Monday of August. Especially on the Zeedijk and in the surrounding neighborhoods there was a party then. Men dressed up as women, women as men. People danced, laughed and drank, often late into the night. Everything was allowed to be different from the norm.

The origin of Hartjesdag is not entirely clear, but it probably dates back to the Middle Ages. At that time, hunting festivals were held in and around Haarlem. The "deer day" would later be bastardized into "Hartjesdag. Over time, the feast lost its religious or hunting-related significance and grew into an exuberant celebration of freedom, craziness and role reversal in the Jordaan and on the Zeedijk.

During Hartjesdag, inverted relationships took center stage: civilians played soldier, children were the boss, and gender roles were cheerfully turned upside down. The celebration offered room for expression, humor and criticism, all wrapped up in costume and merry spectacle.

During World War II Hartjesdag disappeared from the streetscape, and in the decades that followed it did not come back by itself either. Only in the 1990s was the celebration revived on the Zeedijk, where it has been celebrated annually ever since - in a modern guise, but with the same playful character.