Religious Intelligence - Dutch take Islamic festival Ramadan as their own - by Paolo Gallini

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Dutch take Islamic Ramadan festival as their own - by Paolo Gallini

According to a new poll, the Dutch have adopted the Sugar Feast, which marks the end of the Islamic fasting month Ramadan, as one of their favorite cultural traditions.The choice of the festival followed a poll by the Dutch Center for Folk Culture. It came 14th in the list of 100 top traditions. The center (Nederlands Centrum voor Volkscultuur, NCV) asked several thousand people to name traditions that they considered important for themselves or for the Netherlands as a whole. No shortlist of options was drawn up in advance. Queen Beatrix in Hilversum unveiled the top 100 at the opening of the Year of the Traditions. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the top choice in the poll was the feast of Sinterklaas. This Dutch precursor of Santa Claus, celebrated each year on December 5, is followed on the list by the decoration of a Christmas Tree. In third place is Queen's Day on April 30.