How do we Frisians spend our time off? Frisians in the Netherlands must have loads of it because perspectives for a job are about the lowest in the country. In addition, those who have a job don't face traffic jams consuming precious hours every day, unlike the people in the cities more to the south of the country.

Inhabitants of the province of Friesland belong to the poorest of the country and have the highest unemployment rate. Yet, these people turn out to be the happiest of the Netherlands. This according to research of the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek CBS 'Statistics Netherlands' (2017), and research of the Fries Sociaal Planbureau FSP 'Frisian Planning Bureau' (2019, 2023). The Frisian Paradox, as it is also called. Read our blog post The Giants of Twilight Land to understand more about this paradox.

In this blog post we'll focus on two important, traditional leisure activities that take place on the endless, flat grasslands. Also dubbed the groene woestijn 'green desert'. Knowledge of these activities might come in handy for retired city folk too, who romantically think of buying a house in a hamlet, or even more challenging, a remote old farm, after retirement. Please, learn to enjoy these leisure activities first before even considering buying a house or old farm in the northwest of Germany, or in the north of the Netherlands. Make sure the same doesn't happen to you as with a well-known Dutch show master who moved from the vibrant city of Amsterdam to the quiet village of Achlum and who perished in solitude. Read our blog post Celtic-Frisian heritage: There's no dealing with the Wheel of Fortune to understand his disillusion.

Anyhow, it is not until spring before something happens at the soft grasslands. In wintertime, there is nothing going on. Everything is wet, cold, windy, and closed. Like the tidal marshlands. In winter grey, dead and no vegetation, but in spring and summer full with wild flowers and plants. So, watch telly or read a library.

Unless… it starts to freeze. When canals, ditches, rivers, and lakes are frozen, everyone will be ice skating. Just as many sell cake, pea soup and hot chocolate. Sadly, it hasn't much use spending many more words on ice skating 'in the wild' because it never or rarely freezes anymore, anyway. There are indoor ice-skating halls in, for example, the towns of Groningen, Heerenveen and Oldenburg where you can learn to skate. For just in case. One advice. Buy skates in advance because once it does freeze, it's close to impossible to obtain them.

1. Ljipaaisykje

In springtime things are really kicking off. It is ljipaaisykje time! Try to pronounce this verb at your own risk. Some people choked on it. To ljipaaisykje can be broken down into ljip (peewit), aai (egg), and sykje (to seek). Pronounce it like: ljip-ie (as in 'to die')-seek-yuh, and everything as deep in your throat as humanly possible.

Seeking for the eggs of the peewit, also called lapwing, is an emotional thing for Frisians of the province of Friesland. The ‘sport’ used to be unrestricted. Concerned environmentalists, however, succeeded to restrict this free-time activity since the peewit population was decreasing strongly, and specifically, in the Netherlands over the last decades. Every year, the Frisians try through court rulings to continue their tradition of seeking for peewit nests, but each time are losing more and more ground. Today, it is practically forbidden. The environmentalists concerns are understandable, but it leaves the jobless and traffic-free Frisians with even more spare-time to kill on their endless grasslands.

Local bird-watch association, instead, seek for the nests of peewits and other endangered birds now. Birdwatchers mark the nests, so farmers can spare them while working the land with their New Holland tractors and other heavy machines. Of course, these bird-watch associations became an immediate big success among Frisians. Many Frisians who used to seek for peewit eggs, joined these associations. It went viral. This way obtaining a permit as ‘birdwatcher’, and thus having a solid excuse to keep roaming the green desert looking for nests (and -shush- eggs).

Another increasingly popular wolf-in-sheep's-clothing disguise among egg hunters, whether peewits, geese, or ducks, is pretending you are picking up cans, beer bottles, plastic packaging, etc. Pretending you are an environmentally concerned and responsible citizen. Just take a garbage bag filled with some pieces of plastic, and perhaps even invest in buying a waste gripper, and pretend you are searching for trash. Your garbage bag serves as your bag for eggs as well. More and more people collect trash during weekends, so you will perfectly stay under the radar.

Walking winch – The modern Mid-Frisian word ljip and the English lapwing (peewit) are similar. The Old English word is lǣpwince, thus leap-winch. Leave out winch, and leap and ljip are nearly the same (P.A. Kerkhof 2022).

Despite all environmental efforts and all restrictions, the population of peewits, and of other pasture birds, is decreasing still. In the Netherlands that is, because peewits as such are not endangered in Europe. It is a bit of a mystery, because the Frisians really did do their best to create a beautiful, clean lawn of their fields. They grow exclusively English ryegrass. Furthermore, dung is injected into the soil instead of the traditional landspreading, to prevent growth of nasty insects and worms, and to prevent a nasty odour. In addition, they mow the land about six times a year, instead of the two times a few decennia back. Why is such a sterile, scentless, toxin-green turf not appealing for birds? The Frisians are in the weeds how to find the answer.

For the record, also some good news, without suggesting any correlation. Populations of foxes, birds of prey and feral cats have increased. Furthermore, the volume of insects has decreased dramatically.

In the weeds, the Frisian Humpty Dumpty's are. Why peewits and godwits disappear. In the weeds they are.

2. Fierljeppe

Besides to ljipaaisykje, the other hip and happening thing to do at the grasslands, especially for high-school kids, is roaming the land with a leaping pole to jump ditches and trenches. Now, how cool is that?

The activity is called to fierljeppe in the Mid-Frisian language, and literally translates to 'to far-leap'. It is called klootstockspringen on the peninsula of Eiderstedt in the region of Nordfriesland, Kluvstock-Springen in the region of Land Wursten, pultstockspringen or padstokspringen in the region of Ostfriesland, and stavspring in the region of southwest Jutland, where the pole is called æ kluestaw. The trick is not to fall in the water, and at the same time to stretch your limits by jumping each time an even broader trench or ditch. If you make it home dry, you did not grasp the essence of this activity. Try again!

Notice, by the way, the English and Frisian language similarities between ljip (peewit/lapwing), ljeppe and 'to leap'.

There are three basic techniques how to leap.

(1) The first technique is reserved for famkes 'girls'. You place the pole in the water and jump with the pole between your legs. If you don't make it to the other side of the ditch with your feet, the pole still might. As a result you're sitting on the pole above the murky water. Okay for a girl, but with a specific body part really aching if you're a boy. Do not say we didn't warn you. This technique is reserved for famkes.

(2) The second technique is the most common one (see picture above). You place the pole carefully in the ditch and, optional, walk two meters or so backward. Then you grab the pole and jump with both legs on one side of the pole. The trick is to take off in a straight line, and with just enough force and speed. Too little velocity: you're hanging as dead weight clamped to your pole in the middle of the ditch, trying to delay the inevitable. Too much velocity: you have no time to stretch your legs and body reaching forward. You'll crash against the opposite ditch side with your body up to your waist in the water. If by mistake you take off diagonally and not in a straight line, the water distance to cover might be too demanding. You can predict and visualize the consequences.

(3) The third technique is the most thrilling and called boerenplons meaning 'farmer's splash'. When walking in the fields from a distance you spot a new trench, you lift the four-meters-long pole in the air and start running fast. Keep looking in front of you because there might just be another ditch you overlooked. The rule is to never stop running. When you have reached the ditch, continue with the same speed. Place the pole while running in the ditch and jump in one elegant flow.

Because with this technique you haven't inspected the ditch beforehand and you simply started to run, the thrill of the boerenplons technique is twofold. Firstly, you have no idea how broad exactly the ditch is going to be when you start running. Secondly, you have no idea how deep the pole will sink into the black, smelly mud. So, in the worst-case scenario the ditch turns out to be three meters or more wide, and your pole sinks at least two meter under the water surface. Two meters pole left to bridge three meters of water. Forget it. Ain't gonna happen. At least you go down with a big plons 'splash', made touch with nature, and, importantly, you grasped the essence of to fierljeppe.

Of course, the real boss is King Radbod of Frisia. According to legends he didn't need a pole at all to cross water. With his white horse he even jumped the River Ems. It happened with so much force, a hole in the shape of a horseshoe was left behind, which filled itself with water and became the Dollart Bight as we know it today. Really!

Note that the boerenplons is not to be confused with the brinco canario or herder's jump as done by the Guangxes people on the Canary Islands. The two to four meters long wooden pole is called an avara and used to cross rocky terrain instead of soft grasslands.

3. And much more

Beside to ljipaaisykje and to fierljeppe more thrilling activities take place at the flat grasslands, especially sports like angling fishing and to kaatsen. The latter is a version of Basque pelote or vice versa, also called Frisian pelote.

Sport fishing can be done in all seasons. To manage expectations upfront: 'fishing' and 'catching fish' are two totally different things and have nothing in common. The same goes for ljipaaisykje, by the way. Seeking for eggs and finding eggs, are two totally different things too. Or, as the late blind Frisian poet Tsjêbbe Hettinga (1949-2013) would say: "Yn dat sykjen sûnder finen" ('In that searching without finding').

Trying to explain to the reader of this blog post the rules of the kaatsen game is almost impossible. Only a few people in the province of Friesland understand it. Therefore, the people who play kaatsen are truly intelligent. Besides that, they are sportive too. Curious thing about the kaatsen game is that the best player is chosen as king or queen. If you think this is weird, realize these kings or queens at least has some kind of (yearly) exam before becoming king or queen. If you spot (old) garlands hanging on doors or walls of houses and farmsteads, it means they were earned for the achievements during a kaatsen tournament. We dedicated a separate blog post to this bouncing sport in Donkey King of the Paulme Game.

Additionally, in the regions of Ostfriesland and Butjadingen they have some eyebrow-frowning sports too. Take for example Boßeln (called Boßelball in Landkreis Nordfriesland) and Klootschießen. When hiking the Frisia Coast Trail near the village of Tettens, even official traffic signs warn that the road Am Deich is a Boßeln course as well.

Lastly, like in the provinces of Friesland and Groningen, a great way of killing your spare time in the region of Ostfriesland is playing with mud too. Frisians everywhere along the shores of the Wadden Sea have a lot of mud to their disposal. Question is, how to give meaning to that much mud? Therefore, a sport they practice on the mudflats is silt-sled racing, called sliksleeracen in the Netherlands and kreierrennen in the region of Ostfriesland. Read our blog post Racing the Wadden Sea with a Silt Sled for more information.

Note 1 – If interested in fierljeppe know there is even a Fierljep Museum in the village of Noardburgum in the province of Friesland.

Note 2 - We have not mentioned the sport skûtsjesilen yet. It is a sailing competition of the traditional skûtsje boats. A skûtsje is a Dutch barge ship-type. These cargo boats were built from the eighteenth century onward. Skippers started racing for price money in the nineteenth century. already. There are two competitions: the Sintrale Kommisje Skûtsjesilen ('central committee skûtsje sailing' SKS), and the Iepen Fryske Kampioenskippen Skûtsjesilen ('open Frisian championship skûtsje sailing' IFKS). SKS was founded in 1945, and is limited to a fixed group of fourteen ships, and often the same skipper families. IFKS was founded in 1981 and is an open competition, and not as traditional as SKS.

Note 3 - You would think playing frisbee is something the Frisians would like, but that's not the case. Probably because of the often windy weather.

Note 4 – If you want to know how to communicate with the people of the grasslands, check our instructions in our blog post Grassland Conversation.

Suggested music

Van Halen, Jump (1984)

Further reading

Federacíon de Salto Pastor Canario, Brinco Canario (website)

Plantinga, R., Wit goud, groene woestijn. Zuivelproductie en het Friese landschap na 1945 (2022)

Vandenbussche, H.& Casella, R., Human Playground. Why We Play (2022)