On the twenty-seventh of April Willem-Alexander, King of the Netherlands, will turn fifty years old. The birthday celebration is an annual festivity for our King or Queen. To celebrate King’s Day, the whole country, Eindhoven included, will turn orange again. But why actually? And how do we survive this orange tradition?
Why King’s Day?
It all started at the moment of the thirty-first of August 1885. Where then the fifth birthday of the little princess Wilhelmina was celebrated, to gain more of a national feeling among the people of the Netherlands. This annual event was called Princess Day. During time Princess Day became Queen’s Day, and on its turn Queen’s Day became King’s Day. The celebration’s date changed a couple of times due to the birthdays of the queens and king. But now most Dutch people sleep inn at the twenty-seventh of April because they’re free, thanks to this national holiday.
What to wear, what to wear?
First of all, Dutch people are very happy with this extra day off. And to show it to the world we dress up in our national color: orange. The cities go along with this tradition and are filled with orange flags, banners and balloons. To fit in you should cover yourself in this color. The fun part is, everything is acceptable, the more orange the better. Besides clothing, you can also add orange accessories and even better, orange make-up. Especially very popular among women: the painted flags on the cheeks.
King’s Day Checklist: Orange clothing * Painted flags on your cheeks * Change in your walletTeam E52,
What to do, what to do?
Throughout Eindhoven there are a lot of festivities organized, you can find them here, and most of them are free. The variety of entertainment is enormous. For the active visitor there are dance festivals, hip-hop parties and more. But for the more quiet enjoyer, there are family picnics, lounge events and a lot of market stands. The flea markets are one of the biggest traditional events on the national holiday. During King’s Day everybody is free to sell their second hand stuff on the street. So to survive King’s Day, make sure you either have a lot of change in your wallet, or you cleaned up your attic.
