Just a few traditions in the Netherlands:

On April 30th we have every year our ‘Queens day’, a national holiday where people are dressed in orange (Orange is the official last name of our royalty), make fun, terraces are filled to the last chair, a flee market is in every little village or town and the royal family visits two places in the country. There they are ‘treated’ to old-Dutch games as sack-races, ‘koek-happen’ (eating cookies?), well I can’t explain, see for yourself: http://www.bibliotheekdenhaag.nl/agenda/images/koekhappen.jpg (this is our crown prince Willem-Alexander….)

When you have a baby it’s tradition you treat visitors, friends and colleagues on ‘beschuit met muisjes’ (rusk with sugar-coated aniseed). Again, see for yourself – it tastes delicious – pink is for girls and blue for boys: http://doof.nl/archief/beschuit.jpg

When it freezes a lot (more than minus 10 degrees for at least 5 days) we have a large ice skating tour in the northern province of Friesland, called ‘Elfstedentocht’ (eleven cities tour). A route of over 220 km! But because we don’t have that temperature every year, the last one was held in 1997. 16.000 people skated that year this monster tour (and many more wanted but were rejected) while hundreds of thousands people are watching them live.

Traditional food? First the herring. Two kinds: the raw salted ones with onions (yuk!) you have to slide through your throat like this: http://www.hollandcourier.com/wk-24_Ze_zijn_er_nu_echt_de_Hollandse_Nieuwe.jpg and the other one is pickled herring with gherkin (very nice). Other typical Dutch food are the several types of stew: hutspot (hotchpotch), boerenkool (kail) or zuurkool (sauerkraut).

Foreigners always say we are famous for a few things: tulips (actually Turkish….), wind mills, clogs and (Gouda) cheese. But they mostly find our ‘red light district’ in Amsterdam very interesting as well….

We used to be known for tolerance and freedom but, very much to my regrets, that’s becoming less and less. Borders are closing more and more for newcomers out of the EU, regulations for those who want to live here are tightened. Nationalism is growing awfully, we now have a political party in parliament (9 out of 150 ) that wants to send back all foreigners who don’t speak fluently Dutch or are unemployed. We also have Amsterdam, once the gay capital of Europe. Not that all people live there are gay, but there are many bars and tolerance was huge towards other lifestyles. Also that name we lost, fights are almost every week.

To end, some facts: The Netherlands are 1/21 of the size of Turkey; we have two official languages – Dutch and (in the north) Frisian; partly my country is below sea level; in the north there is sea and 5 inhabited islands, in the west there is sea, south Belgium and in the east Germany. My country is quite flat, only in the southeast there are some hills and our only ‘mountain’ of 324 metre high….

Historical view of Halloween

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

In fact I got your meaning. So, despite the fact that we are very much family-oriented, we do cherish individual space. To some extent it is not a good habbit that people adopt and try to stay as "individual" as possible. You will see that in public transport, people choose to listen to their ipods or walkman, to play their NDS(portable electronic games), to watch the LCD TVs mounted on walls, to read...we choose not to look at anyone or express a friendly smile. Most of us don't want to be disturbed or to show friendliness no matter how close we are when squeezing into the train compartments. A typical metropolitan coolness. Isn't it?

Just to add a few things to what Catwoman typed about Poland: we are a nation of almost 40 mln inhabitants, 2 mln of which have emmigrated (mostly to the British Isles but also to The Netherlands and Sweden)ever since we joined the EU. Thus we flood the poor Brits and import more and more of their culture to our country. The process of absorbing American and British culture and lifestyle started even sooner with business investments. Now it seems harder to find a place with typical Polish food than McDonald's or Burger King.

Even our traditional holidays have changed. As it was pointed out we're vastly Catholic, which means we celebrate all kinds of church holidays, plus we have some national holidays like the independence day, the constitution day etc - all very serious and demure. As for more relaxed holidays there's new year's eve. Lots of parties everywhere, people getting drunk, singing aloud, usually the countdown takes place in public and after it people kiss and hug and wish each other happy new year. Then there are...no, not birthdays, we tend to celebrate something called namedays rather than birthdays although it's not a rule. As for me I like celebrating both (two presents a year!). As for "imported holidays" I am not sure I like St Valentine's Day. Not the idea of it but the notion that it got to Poland just because it sells. postcards, flowers, tacky gadgets yuck! Also, I couldn't believe my eyes when last year I saw kids in costumes on Halloween - it's definitely not the Polish way.

You've discussed being loud and crowding. We are not really loud and we're quite reserved not showing too many feelings. Oh, and we hardly ever smile, which also goes to shop assistants who'd rather give you a cold look asking "can I help you?" than a smile.

Men when they meet, they usually shake hands, no kissing (!) unless it is a birthday or nameday (then you kiss three times on the cheeks). A man and a woman would normally just say hello or also shake hands. With friends it's typically the same but sometimes you can see people kissing on the cheek (again, two women or a woman and a men but never two men).