Koninginnedag 2008 (Queen’s Day)
Tags:amsterdam Koninginnedag orange orange craze Queens Day study abroad the netherlands
Queen’s Day is my new favorite holiday. Taking place annually on April 30, everyone in the Netherlands parties outside to celebrate the Queen’s birthday. In a typically Dutch twist, they actually celebrate on the old Queen’s birthday since it generally has wonderful weather.
To celebrate the House of Orange, everyone dresses up in the Dutch national color, orange. Orange is also my favorite color, so I was more than ready for Queen’s Day. I have never seen so many ridiculous hats or nationalist (provincialist) symbols in one place!
I love that on Queen’s Day, the country turns into a free market (Dutch: vrijmarkt) — anyone can sell anything, anywhere. Basically, Amsterdam had a city-wide yard sale. I was pleasantly surprised that Dutch people also think people are interested in buying their household shit that they don’t want, and by late afternoon no one seemed to be selling much of anything worthwhile. Street food vendors were extremely successful and common across the city (I quite enjoyed my five Vietnamese loempias, or fried spring rolls made with rice paper).
People — my friends and myself included — go out the night before on “Queen’s Night,” when the city hosts almost as many free concerts as on Queen’s Day. I don’t recommend it, unless you’re biking — the night buses were so overcrowded that they were leaving people waiting for the next one.
Unlike most holidays I’ve seen overtake the city of Amsterdam (Christmas, New Year’s), Queen’s Day had surprisingly few tourists. Of course, few is relative… there were probably a few hundred thousand foreign tourists swarming the city, but they were matched or surpassed by Dutch people celebrating their only national holiday.
It’s not all great, though — many Dutch people are over it, since they’ve been celebrating it since their birth. Plus, in any of the crowded areas (any of the pleins, most of Vondelpark, and anywhere there is a concert), it can get a bit rowdy. It’s not a fun holiday if you aren’t a party person. However, I love it.
I know that this won’t be my last Queen’s Day, even though I’m moving away this summer when my exchange ends. Like Schwarzenegger, I’ll be back.
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I am SO excited to visit!
I love you.
Hooray!