Liam Hunter has red hair. And so does everyone else around here!

Mr. Hunter attends Redhead Days, a three-day festival for redheads in Tilburg, the Netherlands. Around 5,000 others join him from different countries. “I don’t feel alone anymore,” Mr. Hunter says. “I feel together, a part of something.”

How did this big redhead party get started? By accident! In 2005, painter Bart Rouwenhorst placed an ad in the newspaper. He was looking for 15 models with red hair. But 150 people responded!

Out of every 100 people in the world, just one or two have red hair. The percentage gets just a little higher among people from Northern and Northwestern Europe.

Mr. Rouwenhorst is not a redhead himself. He’s a blondie. But he could see that something extraordinary might happen if all those redheads appeared in the same place. He took a group picture of everyone who got in touch. That gathering got so much attention that people turned it into an annual event.

In 2013, the festival entered the Guinness World Records book. It was the largest crowd of people with natural red hair. Exactly 1,672 redheads appear in the group photo. At the festivals, the gingers have barbecues and campfires. They do a “speedmeet.” That’s a game that lets them take turns getting to know each other.

Some at Redhead Days say they have been bullied for their unusual hair color. But God made differences among His people to be celebrated. He loves variety!

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes. — Revelation 7:9

Why? God designed every person differently. We can celebrate variety in His creation.

For more about redheads, see Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery in our Recommended Reading.