In Transit Blog: Queen’s Day Becomes King’s Day in the Netherlands

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 24 April 2014 | 17.35

The Netherlands' biggest celebration has a new date and name this month, when the former Queen's Day, held since 1890, becomes King's Day, or Koningsdag.

The change came after last year's reigning royalty, Queen Beatrix, abdicated her post to her son Willem-Alexander, who now heads the House of Orange. He changed the holiday to his birthdate, April 27 (he turns 47), but because that falls on a Sunday this year, the party was moved  to April 26.

What won't change in this unabashed swelling of Dutch pride, most visible in Amsterdam, are its hallmarks — citywide street sales, open-air concerts and dance parties, family activities, and canals so clogged you could easily boat-hop from side to side.

Perhaps you recall the liberal amount of orange garments sported by Dutch athletes and spectators during Olympic speed skating events earlier this year?

That was a mere warm-up to King's Day, where citizens shower themselves in the national hue, often topping their glowing hair with shiny inflatable crowns.

For most organizers and partygoers (the city's 800,000 population nearly doubles), it's pleasure as usual, though locals have a hard time wrapping their minds, and mouths, around the name change.

"The Dutch people just stumble on the words because we've had only women on the throne since 1890 — Emma, Wilhelmina, Juliana, Beatrix — and now we have a king," said Muriel Stibbe, a board member of the friends' group for Amsterdam's Vondelpark, the hub for G-rated activities. "As usual, we'll continue keeping the park for children to do a performance or to sell things, cupcakes or lollipops, maybe toys and clothes they don't use. And they bring their drums and violins."

Up the street in the Jordaan neighborhood, Daan Steeman, manager of Cafe de Blaffende Vis, is excited to unveil his popular bar's annual April artwork.

"We've been decorating the facade of our building during Queen's Day for the past 18 years, depicting someone from the royal family in a slightly funny way," he said in an email. "I can't tell you what this year's decoration will be, but it definitely has a lot to do with the transition from Queen's Day to King's Day."

The big reveal comes on King's Night, April 25, he said. The next day, the bar, near the crowded Prinsengracht canal, will host three bands on an outside stage.

Another group adjusting to the change is the celebration's vibrant gay contingent, which hosts dance parties on King's Night and Day.

"It did cross my mind that we'll be losing that little wordplay of Queen's Day, so we'll just have to think of something new," said Hans Verhoeven, owner of Gays & Gadgets gift shop and ambassador for Amsterdam Gay Pride. "It's very possible that the name contributed to the success of it becoming such a gay-friendly event," he said.

One little beef all the Dutch seem to have with the inaugural King's Day: Because it falls on a weekend, nobody gets an extra day off work.


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