A Michigan Tradition

Matt Sowash

May 09, 2018

This year marks the 89^th anniversary of a Michigan tradition, the Tulip Time Festival. In 1927 a Holland biology teacher, Lida Rogers, petitioned the city council to adopt the tulip as Holland’s official flower because of the city’s Dutch heritage. She also pushed the city to hold an annual festival to display the early-spring blooms. A year later, the city council and Holland Mayor Ernest C. Brooks funded the purchase of 100,000 tulip bulbs from the Netherlands and the bulbs were planted throughout the city.

In 1929, thousands of tulips bloomed in Holland for the first time and the city invited visitors to celebrate, which turned into the annual Tulip Time Festival. The festival was discontinued during World War II, but the annual tradition was renewed in 1946. Annually you can find Michigan’s governor donning the traditional Dutch wardrobe and scrubbing the streets of Holland, that tradition started in 1947 when Governor Kim Singler joined the festivities.

In the greater Holland area, there are over 5-million tulips, 200,000 of those are planted in downtown Holland parks and along the street. Over 500,000 people visit the west-Michigan city to experience the spring-time beauty of the tulip festival. In fact, the festival was named America’s Best Small-Town Festival.

Don’t miss out on this Michigan tradition, which takes place this year from May 5 – 13.

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