And this is why I love the Dutch! (Look how beautiful a gesture this is!)

[Silk]

I just wanted to share a video I found tonight on Youtube. I am going to throw it into the Misc. Forum because not too many people seem to come into History & Heritage forum and I hope people will see it and appreciate these wonderful people.

This is what the people of Holten (in the Netherlands) do on Christmas Eve.... (And I have to say the beginning part of the video looks like Canada to me.) Holten has a war cemetery from WWII by the way... many who fell liberating that area of Holland were Canadian Highland Regiments (the 48th and the Seathforth Highlanders are the main two forces that liberated this area.)




They also have two pipe bands they've raised to be a "living memorial" to the war dead there. The 48th Highlanders of Holland and the Seaforth Highlanders of Holland are both memorial bands for the Canadian regiments who fought there and the people not only travel around to the various war cemeteries and commemoration events to play but they even have taken it upon themselves to take care of those small monuments and gravesites that need attention. But even more, they have posted pics on their facebook page showing them gathering and playing the bagpipes at little roadside memorials after first cutting the grass and cleaning the stone and laying flowers.

And just that alone makes me think the Dutch are awesome! ;)

Here they are playing the pipes next to a small memorial to Canadian war dead along a road in Belgium (after cutting the grass around the monument, cleaning it and laying flowers...) They try to look after the regiment's graves in countries even other than Holland whenever they pass through as they consider them as family members!









Silk