and... an 'Orange Monday' in Amsterdam

Yesterday, it was the most crowded day of the year in Amsterdam. Completely covered in orange, the city was home to a massive outdoor festivity. No, it was not a soft-drugs festival and neither had it to do with prostitutes, as some might have expected from Amsterdam, but it did involve drinking a lot of beer and partying on the streets! Yesterday, it was Queen's day (Koninginnedag in Dutch) in the Netherlands, a national holiday which is most extensively celebrated in the capital Amsterdam. ¹


ANP

At first it may seem like the Dutch are very attached to the monarchy and are eager to celebrate the birthday of their queen. However, a brief observation of what is actually happening during that day, will be enough to understand that the public enthousiasm is not really about the queen or the monarchy.

The holiday was initially meant as a tool to strengthen national unity back in the 1890's. However, especially in the last two decades or so, the link between this holiday and the monarchy has appeared only superficial. The truth is that the new generations Dutch don't bother much about the queen or the monarchy. Most of them being apolitical, the queen doesn't play any role in their life, her existence doesn't affect them in any way. So when the Dutch appear en masse on the streets on this particular day, it is not really because of their wish to celebrate the birthday of their queen, but simply because it is just another opportunity to party!

I mean, the holiday may be called Queen's day, but the youth still prefers to be at Museum Square, a large square where big concerts are organized, rather than in that small town somewhere visited by the queen.² The youth prefers dancing, while taking a pull of their Heineken, instead of waiting along the road for the queen and waving passionately when she passes.

This story may give the impression that the queen is very unpopular in the Netherlands, but that's certainly not the case. It's just that Museum Square is hotter!

So did the holiday actually achieve its aim of strengthening national unity? I'm not sure about that, but with those thousends of tourists attracted by the festivities, I guess its next aim is already quite obvious: international unity!

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1. The 30^th of April is actually the birthday of the previous queen, Juliana. Her successor Beatrix wanted to continue celebrating Queen's Day on the 30^th of April as a mark of respect to her mother.
2. It has become some kind of a tradition that Queen Beatrix visits the festivities in one or two places.