In 1574, on the evening of October 2nd to the morning of October 3rd, the people of a Dutch city called Leiden were liberated from the devastating invasion of the Spanish. This event is called the “Relief of Leiden”, and it has been celebrated by the people of Leiden every year since that day. This is some background to the event:
Under the new leadership of King Phillip II, a devout Roman Catholic, the Spanish king undertook a massive campaign to cleanse the empire (which included the Netherlands) of all non-Catholics, along with imposing many unpopular restrictions. The first signs of rebellion were in the form of protests and petitions; though with the leadership of William of Orange, and the increasing vocal support for resistance by many dutch towns (Leiden, Alkmaar, Haarlem and Naarden) the Spanish reaction was devastating. The Spanish Duke of Alva and his first officer Valdez lead a large army to crush the rebellious towns.
The city of Leiden underwent two sieges. The first, in 1573, was a frustrating for the Spanish invaders. The city was well fortified, and had stocked well for an attack. The Spanish gave up the siege in March 1574.
However, less than two months later, the Spanish surprised the town with another attack, and though well fortified, the town had failed to bring enough supplies into the city walls to sustain the attack. During the course of the attack, thousands of villagers died or were dying of starvation within the town, and morale was extremely low.
In an iconic display, immortalized in many paintings, then Mayor Van der Werff addressed the starving people and offered them his arm to eat. Though there was much suffering in the town, it would be a far worse fate to endure the dishonour of surrender, and so long as he was alive (so he said) they would not surrender. My favourite rendition of this moment can be found here.
Meanwhile, William of Orange had decided to pierce the dikes to drown out the Spanish, quoting “Better a drowned land than a lost land”. However, this strategy did not have the desired result, as the water was slow to rise and the wind often remained in the wrong direction.
On the night of Oct 2nd, a weakened wall of the city of Leiden collapsed. The Spanish mistook the sound for an attack and the failure of the dikes, and quickly fled, fearing the flood.
Two immortalized events happened the morning of October 3rd. With the slowly rising water that resulted from William of Orange’s breaking of the dikes, a group of ‘Geuzen’ (sea beggars) was able to sail relatively close to the city. They arrived near the city on October 3rd, and their arrival is called “The Relief of Leiden” or “Leiden Ontzet” – and the Geuzen “relieved” the city by feeding the starving villagers herring and white bread.
Also on that morning, a young boy, Cornelis Joppensz, in disbelief that the Spanish had fled, sneaked into the trenches where they were stationed. In the trenches he found a stew, still on the fire and cooking, of potatoe’s, carrots and onions. This stew was later called ‘hutspot’.
And so, every year on October 2nd and 3rd, the town celebrates the Relief of Leiden. It is traditional to eat herring and white bread, and hutspot during this event, in remembrance of the events on that day. Since 1886, the city founded the October 3rd Association, whose council bears the majority of the responsibility for organizing the event. The modern realization of the event is impressive in its grandeur, boasting a large Luna Park (Midway, or Carnival), the cities largest market, two parades and various other events including speeches, singing, award ceremonies, and much more.
I have uploaded pictures and videos for Oct 2nd and Oct 3rd, but here are some of the highlights:
Town Hall Speech – We followed that marching band to three different events around town. There would be a speech and singing at almost all of them. The city of Leiden has a lot of anthems.
This is me eating the traditional herring and white bread. No, it was not good. Yes, I really did eat it.
This is me with one of the 3 October Association members. They were all dressed in suits like this with top hats. It is a prestigious position in the city.
These are some street performers. They put on a play about the Spanish invasion. It was in dutch – though I couldn’t understand it, I thought it was very well done. It would have been awesome in English. 
These are some of the highlights from the main parade on Oct 3rd. The parade theme was “The American Dream”
The Marching Bands were really top notch. Absolutely excellent. There were more than a few of them too.
These are some highlights from the Luna Park (Midway). The rides were unbelievable. All of them were very intense, no wimpy riders at this park. You can see a video of some of the rides here.
The town was packed. Really literally packed. At some points, I couldn’t move and I was shoulder to shoulder sandwiched by people. Not for the claustrophobic.
This was a pretty cool haunted house. The tree on the right moved it’s arms, eyes and mouth and talked. The guy on the left climbed up and down the rope. It is a “live” haunted house – it comes highly recommended, though I did not go in.
This was a snack I had at the Luna Park. It is a waffle covered in powdered sugar, then dolloped with cherry pie filling in the middle, and polished with yellow creme around the sides. I like to think I can handle my sugar, but I only got through half of this.
