Centennial Celebration

On August 14 -17, 1947, Cedar Grove celebrated its 100th birthday. This energetic little village threw a huge birthday party! Those four days were filled with band concerts, ceremonies and, of course, street scrubbing and a parade. An elaborate, outdoor Centennial Pageant was the grand finale on each of the first three days of the event: Opening Day, Holland Day, and Homecoming Day. The fitting conclusion to the entire celebration was a community service on Sunday, Worship Day. Publicity from that time lists the Centennial Pageant as having 600 local people involved in its production. If one considers the number of people involved in the parade, pageant, concerts, meals, and other events and compares those figures to Cedar Grove’s population of about 1,000 at the time, one can understand the tremendous effort put forth for the celebration. 

The 1947 centennial celebration marked the first of what went on to become the Holland Festival. Over the next five years, two day festivals were presented with street scrubbing, klompen dancing, parades, musical programs, and operettas including "The Wedding Shoes" and "Tulip Time." Another historical pageant, "Song of America," was presented in 1952. There was a brief lull for a few years presumably because of the immense amount of work and manpower involved in presenting such a festival. 

In 1965 the Cedar Grove Booster Club rekindled the fire and took on sponsorship of the Holland Festival, reviving the event with street scrubbing, klompen dancing, a parade, a queen pageant, musical programs, and tours of local industries. Memorial Park was once again alive with the sights and sounds of the Holland Festival, and we haven’t missed a year since.