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Grand Bend, ON – On Sunday July 23rd, the popular “Dutch Heritage Day” will once again return to the Lambton Heritage Museum from noon to 4 p.m., featuring entertainers Marie Christien & her Liederentafel (Singalong) from The Netherlands. Traditional foods of the Netherlands will be available for a nostalgic luncheon, including meat and cheese buns, ollie bollen and poffertjes (little pancakes). Fish will be one of many temptations for the discriminating Dutch palate, with a choice of pickled herring and smoked mackerel.
“Dutch Heritage Day” began in 1995, when the Museum featured a year-long exhibition that chronicled the immigration experience, the settling in process, and the many contributions made by the Dutch community a half century ago. The special day was added, in the style of a family picnic with cultural highlights of dance, music and song, food and language, as known by the Dutch community of over fifty years ago.
In the wake of the stresses and disasters that the Second World War wreaked on the Netherlands, waves of Dutch immigrants came to Canada in the early 1950’s in search of wide open spaces and a new life based on the agricultural life. The rural lifestyle of Lambton County attracted its fair share of these immigrant families, some of whom arrived with little more than an enthusiasm for growing things from the soil.
Now fifty years later, this older generation of immigrants looks back with a sense of pride and accomplishment and at what has been achieved: they have adapted to Canadian society, learned a new language, taken up and improved farms and raised children as Canadian citizens.
The Dutch Heritage Day Picnic takes place in the beautiful woodland setting of the Lambton Heritage Museum, and runs on Sunday July 23 only, from noon to 4 p.m. You don’t have to be Dutch-Canadian to enjoy the tastes and sounds of the day. Bring your lawn chairs and sunscreen and come out and help the Dutch community celebrate its heritage.
Lambton Heritage Museum is an antique lover’s delight. Buildings on site include the 1867 Cameron Church, a blacksmith shop, school house, slaughterhouse and a fascinating assortment of agricultural and pioneer implements. Mature oaks shade the grounds and a picnic shelter provides a lovely setting for a rest stop. The Walden Gallery contains extensive collections, including Canada’s largest display of pressed glass and a priceless collection of “Currier and Ives” handcoloured prints. The museum includes many activities for children, a gift shop with intriguing books on the local area, and a tourist information centre.
Lambton Heritage Museum is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., weekends and holidays from 11 p.m. to 5 p.m. until October 31st, and weekdays during November and December. Admission for Dutch Heritage Day is $6 adults, $5 seniors/students, $4 children, $20 family. The Lambton Heritage Museum is 8 km south of Grand Bend on Highway 21. For more information call 519-243-2600 or email heritage.museum@county-lambton.on.ca
For more information about Lambton County, visit www.lambtononline.ca.
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Contact:
Gwen Watson,
Office/Event Co-ordinator
Lambton Heritage Museum, County of Lambton
Telephone: (519) 243-2564/2600
Fax: (519) 243-2600
email: gwen.watson@county-lambton.on.ca
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