You have probably never heard about "Oeteldonk"? Oeteldonk is the name during (catholic) carnival of  ‘s-Hertogenbosch, capital of the Dutch province “North-Brabant”, the place where your webmaster actually lives. Carnival is a great festivity here and celebrated for several days, but only “below the rivers”, so in the south of the Netherlands (majority Catholic). Just like you have the Orthodox religion in Macedonia we have a 40-days fest period before Easter. Carnival finishes exact 40 days before Easter and actually it is a bit like “let’s do it one more time”, before the fest period starts.

In 2008 I was invited by my Macedonian friend to climb mount Korab, with 2764 meters a.s.l (or is it now 2754 meters a.s.l.?)  the highest mountain of Macedonia (and Albania, because it is on the border). During that hike I had a flag of “Oeteldonk” with me, because I did not have a Dutch flag at that time, only the carnival flag of my city, so raise the idea to bring this flag to the roof of Macedonia. When I was at the top I think I was the first ever that enrolled the carnival flag of Oeteldonk on the roof of Macedonia…

Translation of the above article:

"Oeteldonk flag carried to great heights"

One day a friend of me from Macedonia asked: "Let's go climb the highest mountain in Macedonia are you joining?" My answer was directly that I like the idea. Mount Korab is with 2754 (or 2764 meters a.s.l) the highest mountain in Macedonia and Albania, because the mountain lies on the border. The mountain can therefore only be climbed once a year (under army protection) and it always happens just in the weekend before the day of independence of Macedonia (September 8).

Climbing a mountain is not exactly a daily crust for import Oeteldonker and when the date approached, I was bit worried anyway if I was well prepared. Of course I had to bring a flag from the Netherlands, because of photographs of earlier editions I saw that each country had taken his or her flag. Here rose the idea to bring the “Oeteldonkse” flag to carry, so that "our Oeteldonk" will be honored at great height. It was also mainly to provoke reactions, because yes, where you are from now people would ask, a Dutch flag most people do know. I do not have a Dutch flag, only an “Oeteldonk” one so I can hang that up when the Prince carnival finally passing my street.

Finally it became the 7^th September, the day of the climb, with Oeteldonk flag in my bag. The  flag reached after 5 ½ hours the roof of Macedonia and Albania  through my legs and the help of my Macedonian friends and Macedonian rakija (a strong local drink). The Oeteldonk flag raised of course many questions, but it colored nice between the nicely colored flags of all the Balkan countries. There were totally 1700 climbers that day. I was the only Dutch and import Oeteldonker this year that had climbed the mountain and this was of course celebrated with a rakija, and a Skopkso beer  and an officl certificate. The flag of Oeteldonske had reached the summit and was received with enthusiasm and joy of the local people, as it usually is here in our Oeteldonk, when the prince arrives at the station.

In Macedonia they celebrate Orthodox indeed carnival in Vevcani, more on this can be found here.