gatherings, local festivities and even in churches. There were however a few exceptions including Bornholm, Amager and Fanø which maintained their own traditions. As the town musicians disliked traditional instruments such as drums, bagpipes and hurdy-gurdies, the fiddle was increasingly used for dance music. By the second half of the 17th century, pair dances from Poland were introduced, especially the pols, a variant of the polska, soon to be followed by the minuet. Dances which became popular in the 19th century included the waltz and Danish variants of contra and square dances such as the hopsa, rheinlænder, galop, sveitrit and schottish. Those taking part in the festivities wore their best Sunday costumes, which differed somewhat from region to region but were invariably made at home from flax, wool or linen. In the middle of the 19th century, both the traditional costumes and the dances began to die out. But by the beginning of the 20th century, when there was renewed interest in the national heritage, a number of groups began to revive the music, the dances and the costumes. In 1901, the Society for the Promotion of Danish Folk Dancing (Foreningen til Folkedansens Fremme) was founded in Copenhagen, leading to local dancing societies throughout the country. Today there are some over 12,000 folk dancers belonging to 219 local clubs which provide courses in music, dancing and dressmaking. National costumes The traditional costumes of Denmark, though varying from region to region, date back roughly to the period between 1750 and 1900 when clothes were often home-made from yarn spun from wool or flax. In rural communities, the fabrication of garments for both family members and servants was an important part of everyday life. They were usually made of woolen fabric, woven by the women themselves or by a professional weaver. Many of the patterns, based on a limited range of colours from vegetable dyes, were common to almost all parts of the country. Variations in costume between the regions can best be seen in women's best Sunday attire, especially in the arrangement of the ever present headdress, either in the form of a bonnet or a scarf. The headpiece often consisted of a bonnet, a piece of linen underneath and a scarf to hold it in place, either in broad lace or in embroidered tulle. On the island of Zealand, there was a tradition for trailing bonnets embroidered with gold and