09/24/2026
Event: Holland House, Sunday, October 4, 2026
2026 – Leidens Ontzet and Sjoelen
Doors open at 3 pm
3 p.m. “sjoelen” if you like to play if not chat with other members and friends
5.30 pm dinner, Hutspot, salt herring with white bread
Members Guests
No charge $ 15.00
R.S.V.P. before October 1, 2025
Email: frances.mettes@gmail.
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🧡 What is Leidens Ontzet? 🧡
Every year on October 3rd, the city of Leiden throws a big party, and there's quite a story behind it!
In 1574, during the Eighty Years' War, the Spanish army surrounded Leiden and tried to starve the city into surrender. The siege lasted for months. Food ran out, and thousands of people died from hunger and disease, but the Leidenaars refused to give up.
To save the city, the Dutch did something only the Dutch would think of: they broke open the dikes and flooded the surrounding land! Once the water was high enough (with a little help from a lucky storm), the Geuzen (Dutch rebels) sailed their boats right up to the city. On October 3, 1574, the Spanish fled and Leiden was free.
The Geuzen brought herring and white bread for the starving citizens. And legend says a young boy crept into the abandoned Spanish camp and found a pot of stew still warm over the fire: carrots, onions and parsnips mashed together. That dish became hutspot, and Dutch families still eat it to celebrate today! 🥕🧅
Spanish leftovers: the tradition of eating hutspot in Leiden September 29, 2023September 29, 2023 Public History Student Blog Imagine: the year is 1574, the sun is rising in the Dutch city of Leiden and people are slowly waking up. The Netherlands was embroiled in a war, which would later be called....
