Reminiscences of the Relief of Leiden: A Total Ritual Event.

This article examines the Third of October festivities in the city of Leiden, The Netherlands, held in commemoration of its relief from the Spanish siege in 1574. It describes and analyses the Leiden Third of October festivities as a total ritual event. To do so the paper presents the arena, the history of the festivities with the major agents involved, myth and reality, symbols, and common behavior and special practices in succession. In the conclusion it formulates the essence of these Leiden festivities which have been the theme of the present article. In Leiden the third of October is completely different from any other day of the year. It is a gap in the normal sequence of time, a discontinuity in the activities offering possibilities to deviate from the normal course of life: through festivity, play, reconsideration of historical events, the presentation of authority, religious reflection, a gathering of family and friends, special songs, special food, ceremony and so on. These festivities are a "total ritual event," a concept developed after the Maussian notion of "total social fact" which stresses both the ritual dimension of the feast and collective participation at the city level.