Tradition of Queen's Day in Holland

The Queen's Birthday
Queen's Day festivities began before the World War II with the celebration of birthday of Queen Wilhelmina on August 31 and since 1949, celebration of the birthday of her daughter and successor on the Dutch throne Queen Juliana, on April 30.

When Queen Beatrix succeeded Juliana in 1980, she decided to keep the Queen's Day on April 30. Her own birthday is in the middle of winter (January 31), so celebrating it outside would be difficult. Until today, many especially older people call the holiday the Queen's Birthday.

There is a rule that if the day of April 30 falls on the day free of work, the Queen's Day is celebrated on the day before. Coming years Queen's Day will be celebrated on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 and Thursday, April 30, 2009.

The Queen meets people
Traditionally, on this day the Queen visits one of the cities in the country, and meets celebrating people. Television reports live on these meetings during the day.

Dressing in Orange
Celebrating Queen's Day means dressing in orange clothes (as the reigning dynasty is House of Orange and this is their color), painting faces and hair orange, drinking drinks tinted in this color (or just natural orange juice), wearing mock orange crowns, dressing as the queen and making jokes at the royal family. As some of the jokes may seem to you slightly inappropriate, they express deep attachment Dutch people have to their Royal Family, which seen in the Netherlands as the symbol of national unity.