The Postcard
A postally unused briefkaart bearing no publisher's name. The card has a divided back.
There are many postcards showing Dutch women and girls on this photostream, and they are almost invariably shown knitting. Where boys are also present, they are usually shown smoking a pipe, which would certainly not be allowed today.
Volendam
Volendam is a small town in North Holland in the Netherlands, in the municipality of Edam-Volendam. The town has about 22,000 inhabitants (November 2007), and is twinned with Coventry in the UK.
Originally, Volendam was the location of the harbour of the nearby Edam. However in 1357, the inhabitants of Edam dug a shorter canal to the Zuiderzee with its own separate harbour.
This removed the need for Volendam's original harbour, which was then dammed and used for land reclamation. Farmers and local fishermen settled there, forming the new community of Volendam, which literally meant 'Filled dam'.
In the early part of the 20th. century Volendam became an artists' retreat, with both Picasso and Renoir spending time there.
The majority of the population belongs to the Roman Catholic Church, which is deeply connected to the village culture. Historically, many missionaries and bishops grew up in Volendam. Today there is the chapel of Our Lady of the Water, which is located in a village park.
The Volendam Café Fire
The Volendam New Year's café fire occurred during the 2000–2001 New Year's night. The fire began early on New Year's Day 2001 and caused the death of 14 young people. 241 people were admitted to hospital, 200 of whom suffered serious burns.
The fire took place in a building that housed three bars. On New Year's Eve it was packed with more than 350 young people between 13 and 22 years of age when a short blaze happened in the café De Hemel ("Heaven") which was located on the top floor after a sparkler hit Christmas decorations that hung from the ceiling. The temperature in the room reached 400 °C (752 °F).
There was great panic and the heat, lack of oxygen and people falling over each other made escaping extremely difficult. There also were bars in front of the windows and there were too few emergency exits, all of which contributed to the high number of injuries.
Survivors stated that shortly after the fire began, all the lights went out, contributing to the panic.
The first report reached the Amsterdam ambulance service at 00:38 local time on the 1st. January. The first fire engine arrived at 00:46.
Mayor Frank IJsselmuiden claimed that the crowd had panicked because all but one of the emergency exits were blocked.
Many of those injured were hurt when they smashed windows and leapt from third and second floor windows in an attempt to escape the fire. Others including 53 injured individuals were admitted due to burns, with some being flown to special burns units in Belgium and Germany.
Investigation Into the Fire
The fire was initially investigated intensively by media and politicians. New rules were introduced for decorations in cafés, nightclubs and other venues. The owner and managers of the building were indicted for culpability.
An inquiry showed that the owner Jan Veerman had been negligent in providing escape routes, as well as failing to soak the Christmas decorations with a fire-resistant substance. Also there were too many people in the building at the time of the incident.
The owner was given a conditional prison sentence and community service. As a result of the inquiry Mayor of Edam-Volendam Frank IJsselmuiden and alderman Wim Visscher resigned their positions.
Tourism in Volendam
Volendam is a popular tourist destination. It is well-known for its old fishing boats and the traditional clothing still worn by some residents.
The women's costume of Volendam, with its high, pointed bonnet, is one of the most recognizable of the Dutch traditional costumes, and is often featured on tourist postcards and posters (although there are believed to be fewer than 50 women now wearing the costume as part of their daily lives, most of them elderly).
There is a regular ferry connection to Marken, a peninsula close by.
Volendam also features a small museum about its history and clothing style, and visitors can have their pictures taken in traditional Dutch costumes.
Volendam on Film
Volendam was a shooting location in Vikas Bahl's 2014 Bollywood film, Queen. The actors established an Indian food shop called Rani's Gol Gappa.
The owner was an Italian, Marco Canadea, as Marcello. The role of Queen was played by Indian actress Kangana Ranaut.
The film follows the story of Rani Mehra, a diffident Punjabi girl from New Delhi who embarks on her honeymoon to Paris and Amsterdam by herself after her fiancé calls off their wedding.
Queen is cited as a ground-breaking and an influential feminist film by many scholars. Over the years, the film has built a strong cult following. It was named as one of the best films of the decade (2010's) by multiple publications such as Paste and Film Companion.
Several publications such as O, The Oprah Magazine, and Cosmopolitan have named it as one of the best films of Indian Cinema. Shubhra Gupta from The Indian Express named Queen as one of the 75 finest and most iconic films made in India in the last 70 years.
Music in Volendam
Volendam is well known for its distinctive music, which is called Palingsound (literally "Eel Sound") in reference to Volendam's status as fishing village.
During the 1960's, the local group The Cats was a very popular group in the Netherlands and abroad.
Another band from Volendam was BZN, which became popular in the late 1960's and early 1970's. In 1995 BZN performed a duet with the ten-year-old Jan Smit, who quickly became a celebrity in his own right.
The popular music groups 3JS and Nick & Simon are famously from Volendam; their members have all participated in local musical performances through the years.
