Alkmaar Cheese Market

Alkmaar is a town just north of Amsterdam that is famous for it's cheese market.  Some friends and I had a fun day there watching the cheese market and walking around the quaint canal lined streets.  Below is a little history of the cheese market.  I attached a link to 'The Cheese Movie' that shows the market in action.  Who knew there would be a movie about cheese....

Alkmaar had a weighing house for cheese as early as 1365. Until the First World War, the cheese market was a vital centre for the trade. In 1916, an average of three hundred tons of cheese were sold on every market day. Since 1939, Alkmaar has been the only place in the Netherlands to maintain the cheese market tradition in this form. Every year, on 22 Fridays from mid-April to mid-September, the market takes place. About 100,000 people from all over the world visit the cheese market in Alkmaar every year.

The cheese carriers’ guild did not have their own patron saint, or their own altar in church like other professional guilds such as the cobblers, coopers, coppersmiths and tanners. However, the biblical text from 1622 is still the device for the guild of Alkmaar:

"A false balance is abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight" (Proverbs 11:1)
The Alkmaar cheese carriers’ guild is responsible for moving and weighing cheese during the cheese market on Fridays. The guild consists of four groups (vemen) of seven men each.

Each veem has its own colour: red, yellow, green or blue. The head of the four vemen is the 'cheese father', the supervisor. As a sign of his office, the cheese father carries a black stick with a silver knob. The cheese carriers wear the traditional costume: a white suit and a straw hat with a ribbon in the colour of their own veem. An experienced carrier is known as a vastman (a regular). Before then, he is known as a noodhulp (temporary assistant). The oldest cheese carrier in a veem is called the tasman (bagman). He can be recognised by the black leather bag he wears. The tasman puts the weights on the balance when the cheese is weighed.

On Fridays, the square is prepared before the cheese carriers’ guild goes into action. The market inspector supervises the removal of the cheese from the trucks as they are positioned on the square in long rows by the zetters. When the bell is rung at ten o'clock, the zetters load the barrows and the cheese carriers carry them to the balance to weigh the cheese. Sworn weighing masters supervise the weighing and complete the weight slips. Meanwhile, on the square, traders and inspectors determine the quality of the cheese on offer. Haggling about the price takes place using the handjeklap system, literally clapping hands with other merchants.

http://www.alkmaar.nl/gemeente/subsites/videoboodschap/kaasmarktfilm/kaasmarkt.html

While we were there, there was a wedding going on in the church that is on the square.  After the couple was married, they came out to the cheese market and the groom carried his bride around the market on a cheese carrier...only in Holland...Tourists can not buy any of the cheese wheels from the market, but there are stalls all around the square where you can sample and buy cheese.  Funny enough, none of us came home with any cheese...