Queens Day Party

Queen's Day is a national holiday in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Celebrated on 30 April (or on the 29th if the 30th is a Sunday), Koninginnedag is the official birthday of Beatrix, Queen of the Netherlands. Queen Beatrix's actual birthday is 31 January; 30 April was the birthday of her mother and predecessor, Juliana. The holiday remains as an April observance in honor of Juliana and in hopes of better weather than would occur in January.

The holiday was first observed on 31 August 1885 as Prinsessedag or Princess's Day, and was held on the fifth birthday of PrincessWilhelmina, the heiress to the Dutch throne. With the princess's 1890 accession, the holiday acquired its present name,Koninginnedag. When held on 31 August, the holiday was the final day of school summer vacation, and rapidly became popular among children.

With the accession of Queen Juliana in 1948, the holiday was moved to her birthday. When her daughter, Beatrix, took the throne in 1980, she retained the celebration on 30 April, but altered her mother's custom of holding a parade near a royal palace, instead choosing to visit different Dutch towns each year and join in the festivities. In 2009, seven people were killed when a car was driven into a crowd surrounding the royal family's vehicle; the driver also later died. Koninginnedag is known for the nationwide vrijmarket (free market or flea market), when many Dutch sell secondhand items, and as an opportunity for "orange madness" or oranjegekte, when the normally-staid Dutch let down their hair, often temporarily dyed orange for the occasion.

The above is all the wiki stuff the actual party the way it goes well I guess you can understand from the photos below.

I celebrated the Queen's Day at Arnhem surely it is not the biggest party in Netherlands, but it was an awesome party for sure. 

There are markets setup to sell off not required stuff, the amazing part is even while standing in a really really crowded market compared to any other day I  have been here; you would not feel it like fish market, people are bargaining people are talking, people are drinking (the party starts since morning) but nothing chaotic well managed and not loud. There are different stages, tents setup in the centrum (alright, the basic clubs, parties everything is in the centrum supposedly the centre part of the city for all the happening things going around, majorly for all cities in Netherlands), rest I guess you should check out the photos first!

It is a wonderful time to be in Netherlands and if the weather is good as it was for this year, I can assure you; you are going to love it.

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