Pinksteren

This weekend the Dutch celebrate Pinksteren or Pentecost, on both Sunday and Monday. Sunday is 1e Pinksterdag or Eerste Pinksterdag, and Monday is 2e Pinksterdag or Tweede Pinksterdag [English: Whit Monday]. In the more Catholic regions it is still a religious holiday and the day that churches conduct first communion for children and other important church matters.  For everyone else it is simply a four-day weekend; nearly everyone in the Netherlands has Monday off.  Just a few years ago all businesses would be closed but today, in search of the almighty Euro, many stores will be open (Koop Zondag).

Pinkster, or Pentecost, ("the Fiftieth day") is one of the prominent feasts in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection. The feast is also called Whit Sunday, Whitsun, or Whit especially in the United Kingdom, where the following Monday was traditionally a holiday. Pentecost is celebrated seven weeks (50 days) after Easter Sunday, hence its name. Pentecost falls on the tenth day after Ascension Thursday (Hemelvaartsdag in The Netherlands).

Many Dutch and Belgian churches will conduct special services on Pinksteren and many small towns and villages will have processions, usually to one of the hundreds of roadside chapels or crosses.

Pinkpop Festival, or Pinkpop for short, is an annual rock festival held in Landgraaf, The Netherlands. It is held annually during the Pinksteren weekend.