Interesting Habits, Customs, Traditions.....

... or at least, Dutch habits, customs, traditions, ways of doing things that *i* found interesting, in no particular order:

• people are greeted with 3 cheek-kisses
• birthdays are very important at all ages - the person celebrating his or her birthday holds the celebration, invitees sit in a circle, everyone congratulates (by handshake or 3 kisses) everyone in the circle for the recipient's birthday
• cake is taken to the office or cookies to school for one's birthday
• a calendar with only birthdays listed for each month is hung in the washroom
• social activities and appointments are rarely spontaneous, and are often booked months in advance
• bathtubs are not popular, but shelf toilets are
• dishes are not rinsed after washing
• hands are washed in the kitchen sink after using the washroom
• home births are the norm, and pain relief is not readily available
• Zwarte Piet- Sinterklaas' black-faced helper
• the Polder model of consensus decision-making
• hagelslag - sprinkles as a sandwich topping
  

"As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own." Margaret Mead