Canada's National Sport?
As everyone knows, Canada's national sport is hockey. (I know, there are a few sports that can definitely be documented as having been developed in Canada, such as Lacrosse and Basketball and therefor have better claim to the moniker; I just like to stir the brown stuff:) and what I'm really referring to when I say "Canada's National Sport" is this nation's preoccupation with the sport of hockey. But, where did the sport originate?
Imagine my surprise when I walked through the "Rijksmuseum" in Amsterdam back in 1997: there was a 16th century painting that very obviously depicts the use of a stick to move a round object around on the ice. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to make the leap from playing around to a game. The most fascinating thing about this picture is the shape of the head of the stick, which reminds one of a golf club. And keep in mind that most researchers agree that golf got its start in the Netherlands. And while you're taking another look, have a close peek at the shape of the round object; not quite a puck, almost looks like a golf ball, doesn't it?
All these pictures were shot under available light; that meant fairly slow shutter speeds, as you can see from the slight camera shake on the 3rd shot.
This page has been up for many years -20 at least by 2021- and was done originally to poke fun at hockey's origins, however, with the internet containing so much more information I did a bit of digging in March 2021 and I found a Wikipedia page with a much sharper picture of the painting. It would appear as if the game depicted in the painting is called "kolven" or "kolf" and has evolved from swinging a club-like implement at a ball aiming for an agreed upon object which could be a post or even a tree played outdoors in the middle-ages to where it is now played indoors on a fairly short course where the objective is to hit a post at the end. It is primarily played in the northern part of the country to this day, there are around 30 clubs with a total of about 600 members.
Guestbook use seems to have fallen out of favour, so we have deleted it, but, if there's something you'd like to say, simply use the form on the contact page.
Pages last updated 28 November 2018