Travel tips: Deventer: December Dickens Festival

December 19, 2021

Travel tips: Deventer: December Dickens Festival

The December Deventer Dickens Festival in the Netherlands

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," one of the most famous quotes of Dickens is from the Tale of Two Cities, set around 1789 at the time of the French Revolution. Only in the worst of times does this lovely festival not occur (2020,2021) due to Covid restrictions as the festival attracts visitors from all over. Instead, Leeuwaarden theatre put on a live Scrooge show production. Outside with pretty lights and singers, raising funds and finding donors for children in poverty, just Dickens would have done had he been alive today. For the public though in another strict month xmas lockdown, it can only be a current toast to Dickens with Gluwiijn and roasted chestnuts at home, remembering his brilliant novels. As the glass is always half full and we all have so much to be grateful for! So if you havent read a Dickens novel yet, now is the time.

The best and worst of times quote is from the Tale of Two Cities, namely Paris and London. Lucy's father is brought back from France suffering from mental illness and in hiding since the revolution. Lucy has two men who fight for her love and the tale covers journeys in the family dramas between London and Paris, where her father is defended in court by one of the admirers. The other, more of a loose cannon is the one who eventually sacrifices his life for her, freeing Lucy's other pursuer and dressing in disguise to take his place in the prison cell.

Every Christmas television airs the famous novel, A Christmas Carol. Known for it's miserly Scrooge character, a horrible, selfish employer who is too mean to give his employee free time over Christmas or even turn on the heater. Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas to review his life in the present, past and future. Good eventually triumphs over evil and he changes for the better, eventually helping his small city, buying big turkeys for poor families and giving his employee a pay rise and money for an operation of their little ill boy. All is well that ends well.

Costumed festival goers posing at Scrooge's grave by a church in Deventer

Another famous novel is David Copperfield. The poor orphaned boy sent to work as a child in dreadful conditions because his caretaker are selfish people only after money. Some say it is a semi-autobiography of Dickens himself who did much to raise social awareness of appalling conditions for children in work houses at the time. The novel sees David meet with some kind but also scrupulous people and works to become a lawyer. But destined to be a writer, he finally succeeds in this coming of age novel,, finding love and blossoming into the best person he can be, despite his childhood traumas. David celebrates a well deserved life finally.

A peasant girl selling vegatables to nobles in Deventer

During the festival, the lovely city of Deventer in Overijssel, adorns the authentic cobbled street town with little artisan shops and squares in true Christmas spirit. Festival visitors follow a clockwise route and pass carol singers, elites in romantic long dresses and gentlemens' bowler hats, with staged book scenes at mini theatres. Soot dusted faces of chimney sweepers also roam the narrow winding streets and there is even an outdoor funeral parade. Chestnuts roast on wooden barrels there is hot gluhwijn on sale and mistletoe branches cover any signs of modernity. Book stores, delicatessens and antiques shops are open for xmas gift buying and famous Dicken's characters will pass you buy for example, Oliver Twist, Mr Pickwick, The Grim Reaper on stilts, Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas,who billows smoke out of high attic rooms, reminiscent of a Bleak House scenes.

Strict school masters lead the children's choir in song while beggars and shoe shiners, often played and acted by 900+ volunteers entertain festival guests as they wander through the city, back in time to Dicken's era. Watch out for the tall penny farthings ridden through the streets, or sheep and donkeys chased by shepherds. If you haven't done so already, do visit the festival, when it's open again and dress us too to blend into the ambience.