19 Strange Dutch Habits and Customs
If you’ve only just arrived in The Netherlands or been in the country for a while there are a lot of strange Dutch habits, customs traditions to discover. Here are just nineteen of the weird things the Dutch get up to.
1) Cycle everywhere without bike helmets
Maybe it is cycling from a very early age that makes the Dutch very confident when it comes to getting about on two wheels. Not only are they able to multitask while cycling but they do so without even wearing bike helmets (and think it’s strange if anyone does).
Read more: How To Cycle Like The Dutch
2) Eat very salty liquorice
If a Dutch person ever offers you liquorice (Dutch drop) be very careful. It could be a trap. Some types of Dutch liquorice have a very extreme salty taste that will make everyone of your taste buds scream out in horror. It’s hard to understand how the Dutch can love the stuff so much.
Read more: The Horrors of Dutch Drop
3) Ignore emergency alarms (if it’s on the first Monday of the month)
On the first Monday of every month, at noon, a rather scary sounding alarm screeches over the whole of the country. The Dutch ignore it though since they know it is just a scheduled test. But what happens if there is a real emergency on the first Monday of the month at noon?
Read more: The Emergency Alarm
4) Use the Dutch word ‘dus’ for everything
The Dutch word ‘dus’ (which mean ‘so’ in English) is very flexable. It can be used to communicate a wide range of thoughts, feelings and emotions. It can be everything from an angry stop word to a suggestive come on (and more). That’s why it is best not to get the intended meaning mixed up.
Read more: The Many Meanings of Dus
5) Celebrate birthdays by sitting in a circle with tea, coffee and a slice of cake
If you only consider a party to be a party if the music is too loud, the police have been called three times and someone is passed out in the corner you are going to be slightly disappointed by a Dutch birthday party. It mostly involves sitting in a circle and drinking coffee. Even on this list it is one of the most strange Dutch habits.
Read more: The Dutch Circle Party Tradition
6) Go camping in style
When the Dutch go camping they go camping on their own terms. Why should getting in touch with nature be done without indoor plumping, a fridge/freezer, washing machine, heating, a home entertainment system and the other luxuries of home?
Read more: A Dutch Guide To Camping
7) Greet each other with three kisses on the cheek
If a Dutch person suddenly kisses you on the cheek three times don’t get any romantic ideas. It is just their way of saying hello (and goodbye). It’s usually reserved for close friends and family so don’t go over using it yourself. That would just be odd.
Read more: The Dutch Three Kiss Rule
8) Understand the use of ‘de’ and ‘het’ even though the rule makes no sense
Most Dutch people will tell you there is a very simple rule for using the words ‘de’ and ‘het’ (which both mean ‘the’ in English). Then they remember all the times the rule does not work and admit you just have to be Dutch to understand it.
Read more: The Great Dutch Mystery – De and Het
9) Celebrate the Kings birthday (or anything else) by dressing up in orange
Whenever it is celebration time in the Netherlands the Dutch will go orange crazy. It’s no surprise since it is the official colour of the Dutch royal family (house orange). It must be a very confusing time for anyone who suffers from colour blindness.
Read More: The King’s Day Guide
10) Put lots of mayonnaise on their fries
The Dutch love mayonnaise. They love it so much that every chip shop in the land will automatically add it to your order if you don’t explicitly tell them not to. Anyone who does request not to have it is seen as an oddity. In The Netherlands mayonnaise is basically considered its own food group.
11) Drive on the right (which is weird if you are British)
Never get into an argument with the Dutch about which country drives on the correct side of the road. You will lose. They will use your own language (English) against you to explain why driving on the right side of the road makes them right and you wrong.
Read More: Driving in Holland
12) Sometimes live in dangerous houses (especially in Amsterdam)
Old Dutch houses have a lot of charm and character, which is a polite way of saying they can be incredibly dangerous. Spiral stairs so steep they can be classified as twisty ladders, fuses that would withstand a lighting strike and mice as house mates are just a few of the strange things you might find.
Read More: The Dutch House Guide
13) Ignore all the rules of queuing
When it comes to queuing in The Netherlands there are no rules, only survivors. It is every man, woman and child for themselves. Anyone who has ever tried to board a busy train in the Netherlands will be very familiar with this (and probably still suffer from flashbacks).
Read more: How To Queue Like The Dutch
14) Wait ages to be served by waiters
The biggest mistake you can make when trying to get served by a Dutch waiter is trying to get served by a Dutch waiter. They are masters in finding other distractions. They will only serve you when they are ready and there is not a damn thing you can do about it.
Read More: The Trouble With Dutch Waiters
15) Recognize the official start of spring based on ladies fashion
It is not the appearance of the first tulip or the first baby bunny that ushers in the start of spring in The Netherlands. It is Rokjesdag, the day Dutch ladies start wearing short skirts again (and the day most guys start accidentally walking into lamp posts).
Read More: What is Rokjesdag?
16) Celebrate New Year’s Eve with a lot of very big explosions
Most countries will have a few safe firework displays on New Year’s Eve. Holland on the other hand actually tries to blow itself up. At the stroke of midnight it is as if someone tosses a lit match into the countries entire supply of fireworks (and it does not run out till at least 2am).
Read More: How The Dutch Celebrate New Year’s Eve
17) Are un-phased by parts of their country being seven meters below sea level
If you lived with the constant risk of your country being reclaimed by the sea you would probably be a little nervous. Not the Dutch. Most of them don’t even think about it. Maybe it’s because to them The Dutch are not below sea level, the sea is above Dutch level and they are the masters of it.
18) Eat lots and lots of chocolate for breakfast
The Dutch love sweet things on their bread for breakfast. Chocolate paste, chocolate sprinkles, chocolate shavings and more. What could possibly go wrong with giving children (and adults) a massive sugar rush every morning?
19) Celebrate Sinterklaas on the 5th of December
Sinterklaas might seem like a serious copyright infringement to anyone who gets their gifts from Santa on December 25th, but don’t be mistaken. Sinterklaas is the original. Santa is the copy. In this case it is the rest of us that are being weird.
Read More: The Sinterklaas Guide
Are there any strange Dutch habits, customs or traditions missing from the list? Let me know in the comments below.
Somthesenare all the chapters for your book then, are they Stu? I think it would be brilliant if you organised it like this ;)
Hehe. Maybe once I’m finished with the first book I’ll have to make a guide to The Netherlands book as well :)
Driving on the right is hardly weird. I’m British and I understand that most of the world drives on the right. It’s weird to drive on the left strictly speaking…
That is true. And there is no denying we Brits are weird too :)
Hi, nice overview. Some really recognizable, others more common in the world.(celebrating new year with explosions). What about ice-skiting on real water during the winter?
Ow. Good one. I’ll have to add that to the next list. Cheers.
You forgot the ‘Open Curtains’ ! Walking on the street at night, one can look into ALL the houses because the curtains are not drawn.
Yeah. That one has taken some getting used to for me. I’ll have to add it to the follow up list.
And certainly not op the walletjes
In 1946 I came to Holland as a refugee and I discovered that Dutch people wipe their anus after making a shit just with a piece of paper only smeering it all over the place. They took a bath only once a week. I always had the imagine that the were smelly. These habits I could never adept to. We wash our bum with water and take a bath every day.
Being Dutch myself, but living in Germany, I found several peculiarities of us, Dutch people:
When visiting for a birthday: You’ll get one piece of cake with your “kopje koffie”. You’ll be asked what kind, if there is a choice … and if ou are lucky, you might be asked, if you want a second piece (To go with the 2nd cup of coffee). In Germany, they’ll put a bunch of cakes on the table and everyone will serve himself. (The same with cookies: The thin is held in fromt of you in the Netherlands. You take one out and then the tin goes back in the cupboard).
When someone has his / her birthday, it is normal in NL to congratulate the relatives with the birthday of their son, daughter, grandchild etc. Everywhere else, you only congratulate the birthday child.
However: One thing I can’t get my head around: “To go Dutch” is when everybody pays for himself. Which is being done massively in Germany (“Zusammen oder getrennt” (Together or separate), even if you’re obviously married). We never did this when going out! Somebody got the bill and everybody gave him/her enough money to at least cover their own consumptions. ost of the time, the waiter gained a huge tip out of this, since nobody paid less, but rather included the tip.
Cheers
JK
I always thought the term ‘going Dutch’ seemed a bit insulting to the Dutch. It might have been another country who invented the term I guess. Maybe even the English :s
It think it’s because we are known as “cheapskates ” 😂 (not true of course!)
But it really is a common thing here to just all pay your own part of the check…
For us it’s backwards… if we have an American Bbq, it means you all bring your own meat, while in America that’s called a Dutch Bbq
So right!
WELL IN AMERICA BIKE HELMETS ARE LAW. UNDER 18 BUT MOST WILL WEAR THEM . I PERSONALLY CAN’T STAND BIKE HELMETS THEY BLOCK MY SIDE VISION . WHICH CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO MY HEALTH.
I read an article recently where a top neurosurgeon said that he disagreed with bicycle helmets because in most cases the exacerbate the brain injury, or even be the cause of it.
Maybe that is why the Dutch don’t wear them :)
Well, there’s no need for shouting…
Jeroen Keeri ,
I was Born and raised in Limburg , for Birthdays there were numerous different pies and Taart , gasten kregen zoveel ze hebben wilden .!!!
Also after coffee and vlaai of taart , werden er snacks op tafel gezet , and adult beverages were served or soft drinks .
Most often a Birthday party was held on weekends.!!!!
Sure miss this ( Gezelligheid) in America.!!!!
Haha, as an Aussie who has only recently went over to the Netherlands for a couple of months to see my beautiful Dutch girlfriend, (who is immigrating to Australia next year) I can relate to the 19 strange habits, I also found it strange that the Dutch don’t pull their curtains of an evening. As for no helmets on push bikes, it is against the law in Australia to cycle without a helmet ( across all age groups!).
I loved the Netherlands so much along with being in love with my girlfriend, I am heading back over next month for another two months!!
Thanks for giving me a good laugh!!😜
Thanks. Glad you liked it :)
The birthday parties, the long goodbyes, the early dinning, the cashiers at the supermarkets tossing the products like not giving a daamn :’) the uptight attitudes sometimes.. but also a big amount of multiculturalism.. so yeah, despite some things, I love the culture!
What? You don’t like the Dutch circle parties of doom? :p
Make it 20… I’m missing the “wavy gesture” to show you find something ‘lekker’ :)
Oh god yes. I have to add that to the next list. I always find it so weird when they do that.
Yup my uncle does that all the time..very common in Holland
Most of the Dutch people (including me) keep their curtains open at night.. so every passenger can see what happends inside the house
Yep. That is so true. I’ve even found myself starting to do it.
My ex-boyfriend’s mother posited to me that it was a leftover bit of ingrained Calvinism, like if you’re not doing anything wrong then you should have nothing to hide, so look, see, we’re totally upstanding and are publicly proving it!
Although most Dutch name it mayonnaise the majority of the fries in The Netherlands are served with “frietsaus”, which is sweeter and has less calories (mayonaise => 70% oil, frietsaus <= 25% oil). But you can get mayonnaise in other other countries as well. I believe that for foreigners it is much stranger to get peanut sauce over the fries (which is also really populair!).
That’s true. I’ve never really got the taste for Pindakaas (which is something my Dutch father-in-law always takes the micky out of me fore).
Hmmmmmmm!!!! Chips with peanut sauce, mayonaise, curry and unions!!!! It’s called ‘frietje oorlog’, though the north uses ketchup instead of curry!
The curry doesn’t belong with Patatje Oorlog. It belongs with Patatje Speciaal, together with mayo and onions. Using ketchup in stead of curry is almost a blasfemy!
BTW: In Den Haag and surroundings Patatje Oorlog is called Patatje Flip
When it is your birthday you arrange/bring cake to the office. I noticed that in (some) other countries your colleagues will arrange that.
Owww. that’s a good one. I forgot about that. I’ll have to add it to the follow up list.
Great list! And one to add: the Dutch fancy humorous advertisements.
No.6
Have you seen those appartements on wheels that drive the roads in the US? With more luxury on board than home? I think we are a modest camping nation
Us Brits too :)