It was a red letter day – actually, two of them – for carrot-tops this Labor Day weekend in the Netherlands.
The country celebrated its fifth annual Roodharigendag, or Red-Head Day, in the 11th century town of Breda, in southern Holland.
Natural redheads – who make up just one percent of the world’s population, and whose numbers are shrinking – gathered for picnics of themed treats like carrot cake and ginger beer, chats, art exhibitions, and lots and lots of photo snapping.
Why the photo-taking? That’s how the whole redheads-paint-the-town-red-day got started.
In 2005, Bart Rouwenhorst, a 38-year-old Dutch scientist and part-time artist, decided he wanted to paint 15 redheads. So what, right? But the ad he placed in the newspaper attracted 150 models, so Rouwenhorst decided to photograph them all in Breda’s town center. Word of the group-photo idea spread: Last year 2,000 redheads from 20 countries gathered for the photo. This year the numbers hit 3,000. (To see a video of this year’s festivities, click here.)
“Redheads always stand out and it’s difficult to find a place in this world,” Rouwenhorst told the UK’s Independent newspaper. “This is a festival that celebrates difference.”
Rouwenhorst’s favorite redheads? Josh Homme from the band Queens of the Stone Age, and Meryl Streep, according to the Independent. But, he told the newspaper: “The people don’t come for somebody famous who has red hair, they come for each other.”
For the record: No celebrities actually has turned up to the festival. If they did, we’re sure they’d roll out the red carpet.
Photo courtesy PhotoA.nl via Flickr.