Why Dutch people put pancakes on their heads today

And other stories from the stranger side of life

Pancakes being cooked
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Dutch people will be putting pancakes on their heads today, said Sky News. Each year, on 29 November, Netherlands residents put pancakes on their heads and say: "We wish you a happy and blessed Saint Pancake (Sint Pannekoek)!" The tradition began in 1986, thanks to a cartoon by the artist Jan Kruis, in which a father comes home in the evening to find his family wearing pancakes on their heads.

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Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i news site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.