Soccer Madness

Seeing my two "men" (husband and son) slouched on the couch watching soccer on tv reminds me of the soccer madness that hit this country just a couple of weeks ago.
When the dutch play, the world turns orange. Orange flags decorate the streets. All kinds of stores offer soccer gadgets (with orange often being the main color). When a game is played by the dutch soccer team people get together dressed in orange, often with ridiculous outfits like orange braids, orange wigs, orange pants or cutesy "dutch" outfits. Vuvuzela's are prepared to make some noise and bets are placed. Here's a youtube video of a number of dutch soccer fans making life very hard for a reporter. 
Though I'm not a soccer fan in any way shape or form, I do get a kick out of this form of patriotism. I think it's funny and it makes me smile!

But why orange? According to one site "Orange is the color of the Dutch Royal Family. The lineage of the current dynasty -- the House of Oranje-Nassau -- dates back to Willem van Oranje (William of Orange). But while the color orange has royal roots in the Netherlands, today it symbolizes a broader pride in the country and in being Dutch."
And this site has devoted an entire blog post to explaining why the dutch like orange, so I won't bother to repeat!