Amayzine

Everything you didn't know about King's Day

By May-Britt Mobach | #!30Sun, 23 Apr 2023 10:45:02 +0200+02:000230#30Sun, 23 Apr 2023 10:45:02 +0200+02:00-10Europe/Amsterdam3030Europe/Amsterdam202330 23am30am-30Sun, 23 Apr 2023 10:45:02 +0200+02:0010Europe/Amsterdam3030Europe/Amsterdam2023302023Sun, 23 Apr 2023 10:45:02 +02004510454amSunday=9#!30Sun, 23 Apr 2023 10:45:02 +0200+02:00Europe/Amsterdam4#04-23-2023#!30Sun, 23 Apr 2023 10:45:02 +0200+02:000230#/30Sun, 23 Apr 2023 10:45:02 +0200+02:00-10Europe/Amsterdam3030Europe/Amsterdam202330#!30Sun, 23 Apr 2023 10:45:02 +0200+02:00Europe/Amsterdam4#

Wieke has a well-deserved week off on vacation, so I'm taking over our all-time favorite column from her for a bit. Thursday marks the start of the annual shuffling of junk, cookie munching, and sipping on orange bitters, in other words: King's Day.

1. On this day, we spend 100 million on orange trinkets. I would like to advise looking at what you can reuse this year and donating the money you would otherwise spend on party trinkets to Turkey, Syria, or other people who really need it.

2. Speaking of money, the average street vendor (if he doesn't pack up early due to the rain, which most do) earns about 90 euros on a random King's Day. By the way, I am at the Oranjeplein in Haarlem with my signed book and particularly nice children's clothes, but that's beside the point.

3. The sales of the tompouces increase by, rapapa, 500 percent on April 27. According to 41 percent of the Dutch, the tompouce is the tastiest King's Day treat. For the past two years, orange tompouces have also been available, both at HEMA and Albert Heijn.

4. Willem-Alexander is the first male monarch in 123 years. Just look at how incredibly emancipated our country is with our strong queens. We have been celebrating his birthday since 2013. An anniversary, indeed.

5. King's Day is also celebrated in Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and Aruba.

6. This year, Willem-Alexander celebrates his birthday and ten years of kingship in Rotterdam.

7. If April 27 falls on a Sunday, it is celebrated a day earlier.

8. In the past, Waterloo Day was the national holiday.
On June 18, it was celebrated that Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo and that we established the Kingdom of the Netherlands. We stopped this celebration in 1940.

9. Beatrix kept the Queen's Day date of her mother Juliana. Beatrix was born on January 31, and Juliana's birthday was on April 30. Out of respect for her mother, Beatrix stuck to April 30, but also because April 30 is naturally a bit more pleasant weather-wise. Willem-Alexander found his coronation a nice moment to celebrate King's Day again on his birthday: April 27.

10. King's Day started as Princess Day.
On August 31, it was Wilhelmina's birthday, and a Utrecht newspaper came up with the idea to celebrate her birthday in the Utrecht Oranjepark, and over the years other cities followed. When Wilhelmina was crowned queen at the age of eleven, August 31 became Queen's Day. I live near a Wilhelmina park, and we always hold a celebration as close as possible to Wilhelmina's birthday.