Ever heard of the cool, calm, collected Dutch man? The same one who minces his words, is direct (to a fault, some say and is rarely wasteful with anything? Well, on April 30^th every year, a whole nation loses it. Literally.

‘Koninginnedag’ aka Queen’s day, also fondly called Orange craze or madness is just that day. According to a recent survey this tradition is #3 in the Top 10. #4 on the list of traditions is eating Olieballen (you’ll read more later in the post). Anyway, the day is a national holiday when a whole nation literally goes up in orange – rows of organised Dutch people hoist both orange and red-white-blue flags from their windows, and bodies of orange are suddenly strewn on the streets from sun-up to sun-down in a rare display of affection for Royalty.

Some things you should know about Queen’s day

• It was first celebrated on August 31, 1885 and continues to this day
• The day is all about total Orange madness, and the House of. Orange everything from food to people to… cows
• There are huge street parties and free markets (spring cleaning casualties) round the Netherlands
• The Reigning Queen, Beatrix’s  birthday is January 31, but she officially celebrates it on her mother’s birthday (the former Queen Juliana) on April 30. This is because January is too cold for the ‘volksfeest‘ (folks party, literal translation from Dutch).
• The celebrations are a not very common show of affection for Royalty (even more suprising) from a traditionally reserved country

The Queen receives tons and tons of presents from various people. This year one of the gifts she received was some Orange fever tea from a delightful tea and coffee shop called Wijs & Zonen, Hofleverancier (Wijs & sons, official purveyor to the Queen). I happened to visit the shop when I went to the Leiden Market and they gave me a cadeautje (little gift).

The highlight of the day is the free/flea market. Every and anyone is allowed to sell every and anything on the streets without a permit. You can imagine that the results of Spring cleaning from homes all around the Netherlands end up in this huge street market!

Just imagine a mega car boot sale with folks from different parts of the world! Unused, overused, brand new, kitschy, junky and just plain old. You can imagine the sensors going off in my head – bargains unlimited. There was loads to see along the ‘orange’ streets of Wassenaar, where we live.

For the first time since we moved to the Netherlands 2 years ago, I went out on the streets. The first year we were here I was very pregnant and so my husband went with the kids and last year we were out of town.  This year my husband was out of town but I decided to go. Everything – roads, heads, hearts and more were festooned in orange….. orange, orange, orange when we arrived for the volksfeest

And loads to buy; My shopping basket ended up looking something like this

The kids got their faces painted; and 

Got some non-traditional cow juice – real ‘Oranje juice’;

And there were loads of traditional dutch snacks like olieballen (oil balls). These are balls of fried dough, studded with dried fruit and showered with icing sugar. They are generally a ’festive’ snack rearing their calorie-laden heads at New year, Easter and during the summer fairs. In Nigeria, we have a very similar snack called puff-puff, without the fruit bell and whistles though. I’ve also heard Americans referred to them as beignets, which I’ve never had so. . . . 

Overall we had a fantastic day – the weather was lekker (delicious), there was loads to eat, see and do… what more could one ask for? Apart from maybe A mini or a trip to NYC…. shall I go on????