{"id":6995,"date":"2020-04-25T09:48:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-25T07:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/travel\/?p=6995"},"modified":"2020-04-25T09:48:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-25T07:48:00","slug":"everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-netherlands-kings-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/travel\/destinations\/netherlands\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-netherlands-kings-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything You Need To Know About The Netherlands\u2019 King\u2019s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 27th<\/sup> of April is one of the most important dates in the Dutch calendar as the country celebrates its monarchy in the most spectacular way. The national holiday is held on King Willem-Alexander\u2019s birthday and was originally devised to promote national unity by honouring the Dutch royal family. Every year, over a million people visit Amsterdam, the country\u2019s capital, and turn the city into one major carnival spilling into the streets and onto the canals. This year, however, the Netherlands has been responsible in cancelling the large gathering, but we chatted to Wouter Vermeulen, General Manager Southern Africa –\u00a0Air France KLM<\/strong>, who shares 7 things you may not have known about the celebration.<\/p>\n

King\u2019s Day Is Celebrated On The King\u2019s Birthday<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a bid to honour the Dutch royal family, King\u2019s Day marks the birth of King Willem-Alexander on 27 April. The day is treated like a public holiday. Most of the country gets off work and is invited to celebrate the life of their monarch. The only time Kings Day is not celebrated on 27 April is if it falls on a Sunday. The celebrations are then moved up by a day to 26 April.<\/p>\n

It Used To Be Called Queen\u2019s Day. <\/strong><\/p>\n

As the leader of the Dutch monarchy changes, so does the date and potential name of the holiday. Prior to Willem-Alexander\u2019s accession to the throne in 2013, King\u2019s Day was called Queen\u2019s Day (Koninginnedag<\/em>), and was held on 30 April in honour of the former monarch Queen Beatrix. Funnily enough, Queen\u2019s Day was not held on Queen Beatrix\u2019s birthday, but her mother\u2019s. Queen Beatrix decided to keep Queen\u2019s Day on 30 April as a tribute to her mother.<\/p>\n

King Willem-Alexander Is The First King To Be Celebrated<\/strong><\/p>\n

Queen Beatrix famously abdicated the throne on Queen\u2019s Day back in 2013 and her son Willem-Alexander subsequently became king. Willem-Alexander is the first male monarch of the Netherlands in 123 years and, therefore, is the first king to be celebrated. <\/strong>Fun fact: King <\/strong>Willem-Alexander is a qualified\u00a0pilot\u00a0who sometimes pilots KLM<\/a> passenger flights!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Celebration Is An Age-Old Tradition<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Dutch have been celebrating the birthdays of monarchs for over a century. In fact, the first Prinsessedag or Princess’s Day, was held on 31 August 1885 which marked the fifth birthday of Princess Wilhelmina. On her accession in November 1890, the holiday acquired the name Koninginnedag or Queen\u2019s Day. That was first celebrated on 31 August 1891 and the holiday was subsequently modified to celebrate those at the top of the monarchy.<\/p>\n

Everyone Wears Orange<\/strong><\/p>\n

Orange has always played a pivotal role in the Dutch heritage and on King\u2019s Day, cities around the country are flooded in a sea of people wearing orange as a show of pride for the Dutch royal family \u2013 the House of Orange-Nassau. It\u2019s not uncommon to see people don orange wigs or face paint while still being covered in orange from head to toe.<\/p>\n

Food Plays A Major Role In The Celebrations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like most cultures, food plays an important role in the King\u2019s Day celebrations. Many food vendors line the streets and squares of Amsterdam serving a variety of sweet and savoury snacks to keep party goers fed throughout the day. However, there is one dish that sees a massive 600% increase in sales on this day \u2013 tompouce. Tompouce is a sweet pastry loaded with cream which is often decorated with orange icing on the day and has fast become a staple at any King\u2019s Day celebration.<\/p>\n

Amsterdam Is Filled With People<\/strong><\/p>\n

King\u2019s Day is one of the biggest days in the Dutch calendar and, therefore, Amsterdam sees a flurry of tourists and citizens from around the world descending on the capital to celebrate. In fact, Amsterdam\u2019s population on King\u2019s Day is twice that of any other day.<\/strong> This is why it is important to not be in a hurry and simply go with the flow as every street, canal, balcony and terrace is filled to the brim with orange-wearing revellers.<\/p>\n

Kings Day is really one of the most incredible festivals in the world and is well worth adding to your 2021 travel bucket list!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 27th of April is one of the most important dates in the Dutch calendar as the country celebrates its monarchy in the most spectacular way. The national holiday is held on King Willem-Alexander\u2019s birthday and was originally devised to promote national unity by honouring the Dutch royal family. Every year, over a million people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4836],"tags":[5101,5168,5167,5166,4882],"class_list":["post-6995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-netherlands","tag-air-france","tag-air-france-klm","tag-king-willem-alexander","tag-kings-day","tag-klm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}