Orange fever
Football does strange things to the psyche. The ordinarily not very nationalistic Dutch are whipped into a mad patriotic frenzy when eleven guys in shorts and orange shirts step onto the field. Within a blink of an eye the populace catches a strange fever that compels them to wear the national colour orange, be it at work or at home, and even decorate houses and streets with all kinds of orange stuff. Why orange?, you might ask. The royal family of Holland is the House of Orange, named after an erstwhile French principality that found its way into the family of William of Nassau, the father of the nation. The orange fever tradition is, however, not that old. It came into being during the European Championship of 1988. Let's hope then that the current team can equal those glorious days. A 3-0 win over the Azzuri yesterday was a good start.
Football does strange things to the psyche. The ordinarily not very nationalistic Dutch are whipped into a mad patriotic frenzy when eleven guys in shorts and orange shirts step onto the field. Within a blink of an eye the populace catches a strange fever that compels them to wear the national colour orange, be it at work or at home, and even decorate houses and streets with all kinds of orange stuff. Why orange?, you might ask. The royal family of Holland is the House of Orange, named after an erstwhile French principality that found its way into the family of William of Nassau, the father of the nation. The orange fever tradition is, however, not that old. It came into being during the European Championship of 1988. Let's hope then that the current team can equal those glorious days. A 3-0 win over the Azzuri yesterday was a good start. 
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