Queen’s Day (Koninginnedag) no longer exists! This article provides historical information about the old Dutch national holiday. From 1898 to 2013, April 30 was celebrated on Koninginnedag (“Queen’s Day”), a national holiday to commemorate the birthday of the country’s (former) Queen. It was by far the most celebrated holiday in the Netherlands, and still is, in its incarnation as King’s Day. Amsterdam’s festivities in particular rival those of Mardi Gras in New Orleans or New Year’s Eve in Times Square.
As such, Amsterdam is full of guts on this holiday, welcoming up to two million visitors.
Queen’s day story
Just as King’s Day used to be Queen’s Day, Queen’s Day used to be Princess Day ( Prinsessedag ). The national holiday was invented in 1885 to celebrate Princess Wilhelmina’s fifth birthday. The princess ascended the throne and took the title of Queen Wilhelmina in 1898, whereupon the holiday was renamed Queen’s Day.
Until 1949, the holiday fell on August 31, the birthday of Queen Wilhelmina, Juliana’s mother. Queen’s Day was moved to April 30, 1949, when the new Queen Juliana ascended to the throne.
When the current Queen Beatrix succeeded Juliana in 1980, she decided to celebrate Queen’s Day on April 30, as Beatrice’s birthday is January 31, a date when the Dutch climate is not conducive to the many activities at the outdoors associated with vacations. Fortunately, the new king, Willem-Alexander, celebrates his birthday on April 27, just a few days before his grandmother’s.
Each year, the reigning monarch visits one or two Dutch cities to greet the people and visitors of his country, who welcome them with appropriate celebrations. What started as a commemoration of the Dutch royal family has turned into a national day of creative and carefree spring revelry.
As for the vrijmarkt , the makeshift flea market stalls that spring up in all Dutch cities on this day, that tradition dates back to sometime in the 1950s. It became a national institution in the 1970s, when Dutch media reported on the rise of the vrijmarkt on Dam Square and in the Jordaan district.
Edited by Kristen de Joseph.
