The Dutch city of Deventer on Saturday transformed into a pocket of 19th-century England, with 950 people in costumes bringing characters from Charles Dickens’ books to life.
Oliver Twist, Ebenezer Scrooge and Miss Havisham were among the characters at hand, mingling with chimney sweepers, livestock and Christmas carol singers in Deventer’s historic center. Onlookers bowed when Queen Victoria passed through.
Merchants peddle antiques and gingerbread, while people portraying pickpockets try to avoid being tossed in a mock Marshalsea Prison.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The town’s link to Dickens is Emmy Strik, who started the weekend-long festival to protest rules against keeping her antique shop open on Sunday. Strik and other shop owners dressed up in the 19th-century England costumes and walked out on the streets.
The protest evolved into an annual festival and Strik, now 84, has collected more than 1,000 Dickensian costumes for the event.
Organizers enforce the dress code strictly — no clothes or accessories from after the 1800s.
Photo: AFP
Sandra Nieland played the queen this year.
“In her younger years, she was, of course, a beautiful queen, and in her older years, she was mourning her husband, Albert and, well, she was always in black and not [wearing] too much stuff. Just her rings... She always wore a lot of rings.”
It is the 32nd edition of the festival, which attracts about 100,000 visitors each year from around the Netherlands and abroad, the town organizers said. That means big crowds, who line up to enter the narrow streets.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Amateur street actor Stef Jongbloed reveled in the festive energy.
In addition to specific characters, “you also have so many people that just dress up just for fun and just walk around here the entire day. Also doing it together is what makes it so amazing,” he said.
STEPPING UP: Diminished US polar science presence mean opportunities for the UK and other countries, although China or Russia might also fill that gap, a researcher said The UK’s flagship polar research vessel is to head to Antarctica next week to help advance dozens of climate change-linked science projects, as Western nations spearhead studies there while the US withdraws. The RRS Sir David Attenborough, a state-of-the-art ship named after the renowned British naturalist, would aid research on everything from “hunting underwater tsunamis” to tracking glacier melt and whale populations. Operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the country’s polar research institute, the 15,000-tonne icebreaker — boasting a helipad, and various laboratories and gadgetry — is pivotal to the UK’s efforts to assess climate change’s impact there. “The saying goes
Floods on Sunday trapped people in vehicles and homes in Spain as torrential rain drenched the northeastern Catalonia region, a day after downpours unleashed travel chaos on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza. Local media shared videos of roaring torrents of brown water tearing through streets and submerging vehicles. National weather agency AEMET decreed the highest red alert in the province of Tarragona, warning of 180mm of rain in 12 hours in the Ebro River delta. Catalan fire service spokesman Oriol Corbella told reporters people had been caught by surprise, with people trapped “inside vehicles, in buildings, on ground floors.” Santa Barbara Mayor Josep Lluis
Police in China detained dozens of pastors of one of its largest underground churches over the weekend, a church spokesperson and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018. The detentions, which come amid renewed China-US tensions after Beijing dramatically expanded rare earth export controls last week, drew condemnation from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who on Sunday called for the immediate release of the pastors. Pastor Jin Mingri (金明日), founder of Zion Church, an unofficial “house church” not sanctioned by the Chinese government, was detained at his home in the southern city of Beihai on Friday evening, said
TICKING CLOCK: A path to a budget agreement was still possible, the president’s office said, as a debate on reversing an increase of the pension age carries on French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday was racing to find a new prime minister within a two-day deadline after the resignation of outgoing French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu tipped the country deeper into political crisis. The presidency late on Wednesday said that Macron would name a new prime minister within 48 hours, indicating that the appointment would come by this evening at the latest. Lecornu told French television in an interview that he expected a new prime minister to be named — rather than early legislative elections or Macron’s resignation — to resolve the crisis. The developments were the latest twists in three tumultuous
RSS