Now that I’m back in the Netherlands, I love to observe some of our cultural peculiarities. One of them is King’s Day.
Since the Netherlands is a monarchy, we obediently celebrate the reigning King’s or Queen’s birthday every year. Since we had Queens for the past few decades, this celebration popularly goes by the name ‘Queen’s day’. However, since the King took over a couple of years ago, and managed to shift this famous festivity from the 30th of April to the 27th, so now we all have to learn to say ‘King’s day’.
However, the nature of the festivity hasn’t changed at all since the throne change. The motto is: dress in orange, sell your junk in the streets pretending it to be a ‘flea market’, drink sufficiently to get goofy, and then dance and prance it all off. The recipe works every time, sunshine or no sunshine.
The scene I drew by the way, is autobiographic and true. We purchased some children’s percussion instruments on the ‘flea market’ and organized our own ‘marching band’ all day, which we thought sounded really, really cool (of course, everything sounds cool if you drink enough with it). To my surprise, passers by also enthusiastically supported our musical ambitions. But, don’t get mistaken: their appreciation holds only true for ONE day a year, King’s day.
Like to read more about Dutchies and their cultural peculiarities? Check out stuffdutchpeoplelike.com for belly-shaking observations.