In this week’s episode of STRANGE DUTCH SPORTS comes paalzitten or “pole-sitting,” a pastime that is widely practiced across Friesland, the inevitable home to all STRANGE DUTCH SPORTS. Pole-sitters are allowed bathroom breaks, but must otherwise sit continuously on top of a pole until they fall off (often into a body of water so they don’t kill themselves) or surrender. The recent 2011 Friesland paalzitten kampioen lasted 54 hours and 5 minutes. Traditionally, the winner usually wins a kitchen, but successful pole-sitters acquired too many kitchens and were forced to buy vast tracts of land to house their kitchens, and so prizes are now given in the form of money or harems. As always, Frisians claim they invented the sport when in fact evidence points to much earlier origins: Saint Simeon Stylites the Elder, founder of the ascetic discipline of Stylism, supposedly spent 37 years on top of a pillar in Syria in the 4th century.
