NOP 8

The replica of a bridge built between the north and the south. What's now grass used to be water!

I've written about Schokland before in this post in which I told you how it stopped being an island. But when it still was an island, island life was hard. The people on the island were poor and the chance of flooding was great. Most of the people on the island made their living of the sea, meaning they were fishermen, some had shops or had a bit of farmland where they would grow wheat.

Over the years the island had been battered with flooding so often, that it almost became two islands, only a small strip of land existing between the north and the south side. Since that strip of land was quite low lying, it was dangerous to cross and they constructed a bridge. The bridge wasn't very wide, in fact there was no room to walk side by side.

The Schokker Dance

However, people crossed the bridge from both sides (and in all types of weather) and sometimes needed to pass each other. And that's when they did the Schokker Dance. You grabbed hold of each other and turned. This practice was very popular with young men and women of course!