Happy Kingsday, Holland!

Today is a national holiday in Holland, so congrats to all of you all with that. For the second time in a row this holiday will be held in an entirely different form in terms of festivities, which actually means ofcourse this year there will be no festivities. A bummer because this is a holiday where normally there is always something nice to for everybody. Let's have a look!

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This is how a typical Kingsday in Holland in Amsterdam would look like. People are dressed up in orange clothing and they would be boating through the canals with music in the background, drinking way too much, and eating orange treats.

On the museumsquare in Amsterdam there normally would be a music show where about 1 million visitors come to which will make the train traffic go bezerk and every year the railway company will be surprised by it.

In the mornings in the streets in the city there will always be flea markets with people trying to get rid of their old stuff. I think this is the only annual flea market which is actually a gigantic success and this is always a part for the morning festivities.

Q-day aka queensday

Kingsday wasn't always Kingsday because up until a couple of years ago this used to be Queensday for the birthday of the queen. Well, not queen Beatrix because her birthday is in January but for the queen before that (are you still following me?)

But King Willem-Alexander took over a couple of years back and the holiday shifted from the 30th of April to the 27th of April. A lot of travel guides never changed this so over the last couple of years you wou see some tourists dressed in orange on a day which is now a normal working day, because no one knew the holiday changed date. Interesting right?



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Jouvert morning

I have to be honest about this. I also still call this holiday Queensday in stead of Kingsday and it is because I missed the transition a bit while living abroad in the Caribbean. Although the island of Sint Martin is a part of the Dutch kingdom and they also used to celebrate Kingsday, it was in a totally different form.



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Here you would have the jouvert morning parade which started in the middle of the night and you would wake into the dawn with all kinds of colors put on you. A fantastic parade if you ask me, because walking into the light is really something special. But this would have nothing to do with Kingsday or Queensday, and was just a part of carnival season.

Back to today

So no festivities today and people are supposed to stay as much as home as possible. The weather is good and I don't think people will hoover at home entirely, but there are no mass events planned, which seems reasonable.



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The King will be visiting my city which is actually kind of a bummer that there will be no normal fesitvites. On the other hand, I doubt that I would have gone into the city then when so many people are on route. A Kings visit will also draw about 1 million people and that is just way too crowded for me.

This adjusted program will mean that the royal family will visit the High Tech Campus which is the centre of innovation in the city. Here they will have I guess all kinds of tech talks and it will be broadcasted on TV. Not the same as one big orange city, but hey...it is something and it is good for the city!

Kingsday is not at all in its normal form but still there is something today. And the weather is awesome. So my idea on this day off? Enjoying the sun with a beer in the park at 1,5 meters distance. That should work! Cheers!