This year will be the fortieth time that Dutch flowers are sent to the Vatican to adorn the Easter celebrations. For some, it’s the honour that counts, while others see it as a superb way of promoting the Dutch ornamentals sector. And that is no exaggeration: any commercial with this kind of reach would cost millions of euros. There have been several occasions, though, when the flower delivery very nearly fell through. “If we let this slip, we’ll never get it back.”
Easter Sunday in St Peter’s Square. As the Pope celebrates Mass, the camera pans across the steps of the basilica, where 30,000 flowers are glowing in the spring sunshine. For viewers, this seems an entirely natural backdrop to the Easter service, but it has not always been so. The tradition began in May 1985, when the Polish Pope John Paul II visited the Netherlands, and Utrecht Cathedral was decorated with flowers for the occasion. Later that year, Titus Brandsma was beatified in Rome, an event for which the Netherlands supplied the flowers. The initiative proved such a success that the Vatican asked the Netherlands whether it could also provide the flowers for the Easter celebration.
