The Dutch birthday calendar: a tradition worth keeping
The Dutch birthday calendar is a perpetual calendar, often hung on the toilet door. What it is, how it works, and how to keep one that stays up to date.
In many Dutch homes there is a birthday calendar, usually hanging on the inside of the toilet door. It is a perpetual calendar: the months and the days, but no year, so it is used again every year. It is a small piece of Dutch family life, and it solves a real problem: how does a family remember all its birthdays?
What is on it?
A Dutch birthday calendar has one line per day with the name of the person whose birthday it is. Often it includes more than birthdays:
- Wedding anniversaries, which have names, such as the silver (25 years) and golden (50 years) anniversary.
- Milestone birthdays, the *kroonjaren*, such as 18, 21, 25, 50 and 65. At fifty a man “sees Abraham” and a woman “sees Sarah”.
- Remembrance days, usually marked with a cross, for relatives who have died.
Why the toilet door?
The toilet is a place where you sit for a moment without your phone. You read what hangs in front of you, so a calendar there gets read every day. It is a joke everyone in the Netherlands recognises, and an honest answer to “where do I put it so I see it?”.
The problem with paper
A paper calendar does not forget, but it does not update either. A new baby, a wedding or a new partner has to be written in by hand, and after a few years the list is full of crossed-out names and missing relatives. The usual fix is to start over with a clean list, often once every few years, which one person in the family ends up doing.
Keeping it up to date
The way out is to share the work. Let each relative maintain their own details and print a new copy every year from the same list. That is what Everjaar does: the calendar stays perpetual, but the list under it stays current. You can see how it works at Everjaar for families.
Try it yourself
You can print a free blank calendar and start by hand, or work out when someone turns fifty with the Abraham and Sarah calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Is the toilet door really the usual place?
It is the classic joke and a common choice, but it is a custom, not a rule. Any place you pass every day works.
Why no year on it?
The year is not needed: birthdays and anniversaries fall on the same day every year, so the calendar is used again each year.
What if I live outside the Netherlands?
The idea works anywhere. A bilingual Dutch and English version is available for families that live on both sides of the ocean.