'Met voetbal kan het wel, normaal kijk je de buren niet an'

Samenvatting

Football Fraternization. Many Dutch people have taken to abundant decoration of their houses and streets during major football tournaments. The spontaneous popular festival of 1988 seems to have been the start of what has by now developed into a ritual "orange craze." Before tournaments, inhabitants dress up their street together. This article looks into the meaning and significance of football decoration for those involved. We surveyed the decoration behavior in Delft and in the neighboring (rather more well-to-do) suburb of Delfgauw during the last week of Euro 2000. Our observations are supplemented by newspaper articles and a number of interviews with inhabitants of such streets. We have spoken with both "decorators" and people against the "football craze." We found that profuse decoration is neither exclusively reserved for football fans nor to the lower classes. Rather, the behavior seems to fill a need for informal contacts with neighbors and provides them with an opportunity to bring out the distinctive features of their particular street. 2 Maps, 29 References. Adapted from the source document.