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The Canadian Tulip Festival, now in its 60th year, has grown to become the largest Tulip Festival in the world. It preserves the local heritage of Canada’s role in freeing the Dutch during World War II, and the symbolic tulip; a gift in perpetuity to the Canadian people for providing a safe harbour to the Dutch Royal Family at that time.

The festival’s mandate is to preserve this heritage and celebrate the tulip as a symbol of international friendship by engaging local organizers, volunteers, artists, performers, tourists and festival-goers in what has become an annual ritual of spring and one of Canada’s best loved and well-known cultural events.

Please continue to check www.tulipfestival.ca for updates!

Festival Information:

General information: 613.567.5757 /1.800.66.TULIP

General information email: info@tulipfestival.ca

Ticket information: www.tulipfestival.ca

Volunteer information: www.tulipfestival.ca/volunteer

Location: Throughout the National Capital area

On the Web:

Website: www.tulipfestival.ca/www.festivaldestulipes.ca

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1209015588&ref=ts

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/canadiantulipfestival

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Présentement dans sa 60e année, le Festival canadien des tulipes est aujourd’hui le plus important festival de tulipes au monde. Il commémore la participation des troupes canadiennes à la libération des Pays-Bas durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. La tulipe symbolise un don à perpétuité offert au Canada en remerciement du refuge que la famille royale hollandaise en exil avait pu y trouver à cette époque.

Le mandat du Festival est de préserver cet héritage et de reconnaître la tulipe comme un symbole d’amitié internationale en amenant les organisateurs locaux, les bénévoles, les artistes, les touristes et les festivaliers à participer à ce qui est maintenant devenu un rituel annuel du printemps et l’un des événements culturels les plus populaires et les plus aimés au Canada.

L’information de festivale:

L’information generale: 613.567.5757 /1.800.66.TULIP

L’information generale de couriel: info@tulipfestival.ca

L’information de billets: www.tulipfestival.ca

L’information de benevoler: www.tulipfestival.ca/volunteer

Sur le web:

Website: www.tulipfestival.ca/www.festivaldestulipes.ca

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1209015588&ref=ts

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/canadiantulipfestival

A Bloom of Friendship: The Story of the Canadian Tulip Festival

Ottawa, Canada’s national capital, has hosted the Tulip Festival since 1953. The festival stems from the gift in 1945 of thousands of tulips bulbs from the Queen of Holland to Canada. This giving of bulbs became a yearly thank you to our country for hosting Dutch Princess Juliana and her two daughters during the Second World War. A Bloom of Friendship: The Story of the Canadian Tulip Festival gives a general overview of the war, of the invasion of the Netherlands and of the life of the Dutch Royal family in Canada, including the birth of Princess Margriet in an Ottawa hospital. While the Royal family was safe in Canada, Dutch people in Holland suffered from hunger and cold at the hands of the Nazis, who took away most of the food. When Canadian troops liberated their country in the spring of 1945, they found a starving population. Many Canadian soldiers helped Dutch citizens to rebuild their houses and their country.

This non-fiction book is illustrated with colourful collages created by Ashley Spires. The textured, handmade paper makes for lively interior scenes and brings out the vivid colours of the Ottawa blooms in springtime. Maps, photographs and archival documents such as Dutch food coupons, Star of David badges, newspaper clippings and vintage postcards add historical interest to the book.

 For more information, click here.