Tulip Time

So college is over for the summer and I can finally relax a bit before I have to pack up and move up to camp.

I really enjoy when the semester ends because here in Holland the following week is Tulip Time! It's like Holland is just waiting for all of us college students to be done with school and then Holland throws a week long celebration to help us kick off summer vacation.

Tulip Time for native Hollanders, like myself, can either be a bunch of fun and you love it or you absolutley hate this time of year. I know many people from Holland who always plan their vacations during this week so that they miss the whole ordeal.

Now Tulip Time has been going on for quiet a while. It is a week long celebration of our beautiful Tulips all around the city and to also celebrate our Dutch influences in the city. There are three different parades: the Volksparade (the people's parade), the Kinderparade (the children's parade), and the Muzeikparade (the music parade). The parades are probably my favorite part of the whole week, besides the carnival food! The parades consist of a lot of floats, beauty queens, school children in dutch costumes, and lots of really cool local and national marching bands. Everyone comes out to see the parades, rain or shine, and really show their support of the walkers by cheering and screaming at people they know or their favorite floats.

There are so many other things that make up Tulip Time it is so crazy. There is a Tulip Time 5k run, fireworks, two carnival locations, dutch dancing showcases, a quilt show, and an arts and crafts show. Those are only a few things. We also have many different theater shows through the week as well as a special guest each year who is also our grand marshall for the last parade. This year our special guest was Bill Cosby! It was so neat to see everyone really excited about this because we haven't had someone so famous before here just for Tulip Time.

I love Tulip Time and enjoy everything about it! Growing up I didn't like it so much but growing up around it I realize that I love the aspect of community that comes out. Sure I do get annoyed by the traffic and tourists but I just have to remember it's only for a week. Tulip Time is a great time to visit Holland if your planning a visit, just make sure to make reservations for a hotel at least a month in advance! Haha!

Here is the link to the Tulip Time official website:

http://www.tuliptime.com/ 

Here are some photos I took from this year, Enjoy!

We always have our local hero's from past and present in the parades. It's great to see how much pride and honor our community has for those brave men and women.

There are always a few very interesting and eye catching group.

Holland High school is the biggest high school in the area and they take their Dutch pride very seriously. 

Holland High School marching band

Holland Christian baton team, I always wanted to be one...let's be honest I still want to be one.

I love seeing all of the colorful flags that the color guard teams carry. Their so pretty!

We have beauty queens from all over come to be in our parades. This is the Bavarian queen and her court from Frankenmouth, MI

Of course no parade is complete without Sinter Claus

My friend Rachel, she was super excited for the parade...the picture doesn't really capture her excitement.

There are always really nice old cars in the parades too.

Zeeland High School marching band

Zeeland High School marching band

Oh hello Ronald McDonald!

Thing 1 and Thing 2 creating chaos at Tulip Time.

The lovely Salvation Army ladies of Holland in dutch costume.

 Zeeland Christian marching band

 The local old folks from Evergreen Commons

Holland Christian marching band

Well I hope you enjoyed this post! I am sorry I didn't get many photos of the dutch dancers and their costumes but if you follow the link I posted above you will see many photos of the dancers.

XOXO
ZMH