More than 1 000 gingers held a massive confidence-boosting weekend in Breda, Holland, to celebrate International Redhead Day this last weekend. News reports coming out of the area have been slow because national news agencies were weighing up whether or not such distressing information would serve the public interest.

Gingers gathered in the town square to celebrate the sixth International Redhead Day, and came from all over the world including countries like Australia, Canada, South Africa, and even parts of South America.

Bonding activities ranged from having a group photograph taken, lectures about being a redhead, performing the biggest ever redhead Mexican wave and a huge outdoor screening of Moulin Rouge, featuring the famous and beautiful ginger: Nicole Kidman.

Every type of ginger was represented in some or other way: copper, mahogany, strawberry, auburn and day-glow orange. There were red beards, red mohicans, red curls, red spikes and a red afro.

Spirits were great and optimism flowed freely:

We have a whole manifesto for positive discrimination for redheads: we want more gingers at Oxford, more gingers in Parliament. Maybe our own ginger country!

Aaron was proud too:

It’s great to be around so many other people who feel proud to be ginger. Last year we wore T-shirts that said ‘Justice for Gingers’ and we got interviewed on TV.

There was even a woman who had traveled from Israel to be at the event:

At home I am the only one – now here, I’m everywhere. It’s spiritual.

The event began back in 2005 when Bart Rouwenhorst, a painter, placed an advert in a Dutch newspaper to find redheads to feature in one of his exhibitions.

More than 150 people responded and that’s when he knew he was on to something big. Thus, International Redhead Day was born.

“It’s hard to tell how many are here, but it’s thousands,” he says as he shakes his head in amazement at the volume of red everywhere.

Bart continues:

I met a couple who live in the outback in Australia. They have black hair, but two children with red hair. The children were the only redheads in hundreds of kilometres, so they were feeling a little bit strange.

The parents decided to bring their children to the Redhead Day so that they would see thousands of other redheads. It is really something. If you see one redhead it’s beautiful. If you see this many, it’s like a dream.

Ginger bashing has been a national pastime in many parts of the world for a long time. Supposedly it began sometime in the 15th century when redheads were seen as witches: 45 000 were tortured and murdered.

The Egyptians burned gingers alive, and the Greeks thought they turned into vampires when they died.

Gingers make up about two percent of the world’s population and take flack all the time, but if this gathering is anything to go by, there’s no danger of them taking it lying down.

[Source: DailyMail]