The Four-day-evening-march and the Sweet-Williams by Helga Blanke

In the month of May, an event called the Four-day-evening-march takes place in the Netherlands. All children can participate in this. The idea was/is to get the children moving. On Tuesday evening at 6.30pm, large groups of children with or without parents gather in front of the primary school. The little ones walk accompanied by one of the parents. The older ones go in groups accompanied by one or two adults. Under loud cheers, the walk starts at seven o'clock. My group walks 5 kilometres three nights and 10 kilometres on the fourth night. They are cheerful noisy groups full of energy. So it doesn't take long before someone starts singing, walking songs of course, and the rest join in loudly. We start with a stretch through the village and then we leave the village along the meadows and thus across the countryside. There is drinking of lemonade by everyone along the way and many have some sweets with them. The first evening ends where it started at the primary school. At the end of the fourth evening, that earns a medal and we are overtaken with fanfare. As a reward, there is a bunch of flowers. In my case and many others' too, these were Sweet-Williams, usually from our own garden, grown especially for the occasion. A special bunch, then, also because the Sweet-Williams are only available for a short time. The colours of this work are orange, beige, brown and cream.