Day of Orange

For whatever reason, I have been going to Amsterdam during holidays. The reason I go is to work. That it is always a holiday is simply a coincidence. I was there during Christmas because it was a Christmas show. I was there during Valentine's Day, but I did not go for Valentine's Day. In fact, I spent most of the day at the airport and was only in Amsterdam for the last few hours of the fake holiday. Easter is a major holiday in the Netherlands, but that had nothing to do with my trip. I did not even know it was Koningsdag until after I got here. I will only be here on Liberation Day because I extended my trip to have some free time in the country. My next trip will be during Fourth of July, but that holiday means absolutely nothing in Amsterdam.

Koningsdag is King's Day, Willem-Alexander's birthday. It used to be called Queen's Day, until Beatrix abdicated and her son took over. It is a national holiday that the people take more seriously than I would expect in a country where the king has no real power. Then again, a lot of Brits, and even Americans, care more about the British royal family than I understand.

When I first heard about the holiday, I assumed it was always King's Day when there was a king and Queen's Day when there was a queen. But the current king is the first one to have a King's Day. The holiday started with Beatrix's grandmother, Wilhelmina. Willem-Alexander is the first king since his grandmother's grandfather and will be the last for the foreseeable future since he only has daughters. The Netherlands knew nothing but queens in the 20th century. Maybe that is why it is such an enlightened country.

Since the holiday celebrates someone's birthday, the exact date changes every generation. The first Queen's Days were in summer and spring. Beatrix was born in January, but kept her mother's birthday since April is a better time for flowers and parades. Coincidentally, Willem-Alexander's birthday is almost the same as his grandmother's. His oldest daughter was born in December, so we will have to wait and see what happens when she becomes queen. Not that it matters, but his youngest daughter was also born in April.

Markets are a big thing on King's Day since anyone can sell anything without permits and anyone can buy without having to pay taxes. There are always markets around the city, but on King's Day, people sell their used crap in parks, on the streets and in front of their houses. For one day, Amsterdam is a giant yard sale.

The main activity on King's Day is to wear orange, since the royal family is the House of Orange. There are free concerts, parties and the streets downtown are closed to cars, which is a strange sight. But what stood out more than anything else was how much orange everyone was wearing. Almost every single person wore an orange shirt. Most had orange pants/skirts and many wore orange hats or wigs. More than a few people even dyed their hair orange. There were orange drinks, orange food, orange balloons, orange flags and plenty of orange confetti for someone to clean up later. It went far beyond all the green on St Patrick's Day.

The entire city became one giant block party for the day. What really impressed me was how adult the party was. In my country, any party this big is going to have a lot of drunk and/or stoned people ruining it for everyone else as much as they can. There will probably be some looting and fires thrown in for good measure. In Amsterdam, it was all respectful. This was a day to celebrate their country, and the royal family. I cannot guarantee that everyone was on their best behavior, but I never saw anyone acting like an idiot. It was more like Fourth of July than St Patrick's Day. Even though there was orange alcohol, most of the people seemed more happy and proud than sloppy and drunk. I saw no orange vomit that day. If you are ever anywhere near Amsterdam on Koningsdag, I recommend it wholeheartedly.

I don't post pictures of people without their permission,
so I found a public domain shot on Google.
This is pretty much what it was like.