Por estes dias, moramos em Oeteldonk

E a culpa é do Carnaval. Todos os anos Den Bosch é rebaptizada de Oeteldonk e a festa é garantida! Oficialmente começa amanhã, mas já ocorrem celebrações em massa. O programa para hoje intitula-se "De Nacht veur Carnaval 2009", que em Neerlandês (arcaico? macarrónico?) significa a "Véspera do Carnaval 2009". Isto promete!

Segue uma citação (em Inglês) com uma breve descrição do Carnaval na Holanda:

During Dutch Carnival, many traditions are kept alive, like the boerenbruiloft (farmer's wedding) and the haring happen (eating haring) at Ash Wednesday but the traditions vary from town to town. Overall there are three different types of Carnival celebrated in The Netherlands. The most well-known variant is known as the Rijnlandsche Carnival and it shares many folklore traditions with its German and Belgium counterparts. Maastricht is famous for its Carnival which mimics Italian, mostly Venician, traditions, culture and costumes. The third variant can be found in 's-Hertogenbosch, or Oeteldonk as they call it during the festivities. The Oeteldonksche Carnival shares very little traditions and folklore with the rest of the Netherlands and they have celebrated it in their specific way ever since in 1882 the first official Federation for Carnaval (De Oeteldonksche Club) was erected, long before the Carnival was modernised and adopted in the rest of The Netherlands.