A Queen’s Day like never before…

Posted by admin in Amsterdam on 05 8th, 2009 | No comments yet - be the first one!

Year after year the townsfolk of the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba celebrate on April 30th (or on April 29th if the 30th is a Sunday) a very unique and joyous day, universally known as the Queen’s Day.

Queen’s Day History

Originally intended by the Liberal Union to be a day of national unity in the Netherlands it all found its start in the celebration of the birthday of Princess Wilhelmina on August 31st 1885, where it was called Princess’ Day (Prinsessedag) until the Coronation of Wilhemina five years later, in 1890, where the day finally got its today’s well-known name Queen’s Day (Koninginnedag).

Although Queen Wilhemina almost never attended such festivities on Queen’s Day, it turned, with Queen Juliana, who ascended to the Dutch throne in September 1948 to a national and international jollification which thousands of people from around the world attend every year, to honour the Queens of the Netherlands. Queen Juliana’s date of birth was April 30th and because of that fact this day was celebrated every year on her birthday, and after her daughter Queen Beatrix succeeded over her, she decided to keep the holiday on April 30th as a tribute and an honour to her mother Juliana. And since that day, the Netherlands celebrate their Queen’s birthday every single year, to honour her and to pay tribute to the throne. Every year, since her coronation Queen Beatrix visited the Queen’s Day and celebrated it with the townsfolk of the Netherlands.

The Calm before the Storm

Until this year’s Queen’s Day, it was kind of a miracle, that there has never been any kind of scandal or inauspicious incidents, (except for the year of 2001, when the Queen’s Day visit of the Royal Family has been cancelled  as there was worry about maintaining the quarantine measures to control an ongoing outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease) but that just seemed to be kind of the calm before the storm. But like usual, changes occur and so it happened that this year, when everybody expected to celebrate a usual Queen’s Day one man planned something different. A man, authorities released that the man was called Karst Tates, tried to attack the Dutch Royal Family during a Queen’s Day celebration by crashing his car, a black Suzuki Swift, accidentally close to the Royal Family’s bus.

On this Thursday, where everyone just wanted to celebrate frolicsome and have a good time, five people were killed, and another twelve were injured during in this incident in the Dutch town of Apeldoorn. Among these twelve, five have been injured very seriously, including the driver of the vehicle which crashed into the low metal railing along a column on the side of the road. Suspiciously the vehicle appeared to be heavily damaged even before the actual crash transpired. Until now, the reason for this affair still is completely unclear and inexplicable. As the Royal Family’s bus moved along the street through the crowd, who were behind the barriers off the road, a black vehicle zoomed past it. The crowd luckily stayed safe, because of being sheltered through the barriers but security officials and journalists including many camera men, were in the road as the car went by and finally got stopped by a monument.

Members of the Royal Family had to see the whole scenario, gasped in shock and then quickly sat down as the bus continued driving to make sure that the Royal Family remains safe. The police announced that the driver came right to hospital badly injured and being charged with trying to attack the Royal Family, nights after his attack, he died by reason of his bad injuries.

Famous Free-Markets

The Queen’s Day is not only famous and well-known for the celebration of the birthdays of the Queens of the Netherlands throughout the centuries but for its free-market all over the country where anybody is allowed to sell things on the street, comparable to nationwide car boot sale or a flea market. Many people set up stalls or blankets in the parks, on sidewalks and even on the roads themselves, which is possible, because cars are banned on some streets. It is kind of a tradition that children do sell their cast-off toys and clothes while entrepreneurs do sell food, beverages and a wide range of other items.

Besides the traditional free-markets there are a lot of other activities on Queen’s Day taking place, such as typical activities just for children or performances of music or other entertainment for money. With the years the Koninginnedag developed to obtain the character of an open-air party, with a variety of concerts and special events taking place in public spaces, particularly in Amsterdam, which attracts year after year about 450.000 to 850.000 people from anywhere around the world.

The Color Orange

This very special day, which is rich of traditions and customs, is marked with the color of orange all over the whole country, as a reference to the colors of the Royal Family, who actually comes from the House of Orange-Nassau. Everywhere you look you can see a variety of orange banners, orange colored foods and drinks and an inconceivable amount of orange clothing and a range of interesting as well as creative accessories, sometimes it even occurs that you can see the water in fountains being dyed orange. Those who do not dress in the traditional Queen’s Day color are usually dressed in the national colors red, white and blue.

Night follows Day

After the Queen’s Day traditionally and chronologically appears the Queen’s Night, which is, just like the day, a whole night full of party and music. Many bars and clubs throughout the Netherlands, especially in Amsterdam or The Hague, arrange special events catering to revelers that last all night long. This tradition found its commencement in the early nineties when Queen’s Day riots were an increasing problem in The Hague, so tenants of clubs and bars came up with the idea to convince the rioters that continuing the celebrations is a much better way of spending the Queen’s Night.

Obviously no one will ever forget this tragic incident that cast a cloud over the usually happy and glad Queen’s Day in April 2009, but as always in history people and the tide of events will move on and maybe next year the loss and the pain will be a little bit forgotten when the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba celebrate the Queen’s Day of 2010.