National Pride
Koninginnedag - Queen's Day
The Dutch flag consists of three horizontal stripes in the colors red, white, and blue. Despite these colours the Dutch choose ORANGE to be their national colour of pride. Thousands of people dressed in orange costumes (or as Queen Beatrix) party in the cities on the Koninginnedag on April 30th. The clearest example of national symbolism is the Dutch royal family. The queen is regarded as the embodiment of the Dutch (nation) and a symbol of hope and unity in times of war, adversity, and natural disaster. Her popularity is manifested annually at the celebration of the former Birthday of her mother Queen Juliana. The capital, Amsterdam, in particular, is transformed into a gigantic flea market and open-air festival.
Read more about Dutch History and Dutch politics...
Elfstedentocht - Speed Skating
Another source of national pride that sets aside regional and religious differences is sports, especially soccer and speed skating. Whenever the national team engages in international competitions, orangemania reigns. People dress in orange (in reference to the name of the royal family), raise national and orange flags, and decorate houses and streets as a patriotic feeling of athletic superiority floods the nation. The Elfstedentocht ("Journey of Eleven Cities") also raises national awareness. This speed-skating event in Friesland occurs only occasionally as it takes a prolonged period of frost to harden the 125 miles of lakes and canals that connect the eleven Friesian towns. Because of climate changeing conditions the natural skateing rinks are not readily available in the Netherlands. Since several years the Dutch perform an "Alternatieve Elfstedentocht" - the major Ice-skating Marathon Event - in Austria at the completely frozen Weissensee, a lake that lies 960m above sea level.
Sinterklaas and Zwarte Pieten
December 6th is dedicated to the so-called Sint-Nicolaas [Dutch: Sinterklaas], a saint and bishop who lived during the third century A.C. This day is celebrated every year as it is the chief occasion for gift-giving: on the evening of December 5, Sinterklaas brings presents to every child that has been good in the past year. You can see the Saint arriving every year on his ship from Spain in most of the big harbours during December 6th. This event is even braodcasted on Dutch TV and adult people will claim that this guy actually brings the presents! Dutch people like to give each other big size chocolate letters as typical Sinterklaas candy.
More about St. Nicholas on: www.stnicholascenter.org
Dutch public holidays
Besides the Queen's Day end of April there are a few more public holidays with closed shops: Good Friday / Goede vrijdag (April), Easter Monday / Tweede Paasdag (April), Ascension Day / Hemelvaartsdag (May), Whit Monday / Tweede Pinksterdag (end of May / June), Christmas Day / Eerste Kerstdag (December 25th), Boxing Day / Tweede Kerstdag (December 26th) and of course New Years Day / not regarded as public holiday but not much going on after the overall excessive celebrations with massive fireworks everywhere.