Special Report from the Nederlands

Hi there, this is agent Valentino!
I want to tell you something about a Dutch national holiday we celebrate.
It is called Queensday and every year on the 30th of April all the slaves and non-slaves from the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles
and Aruba celebrate the Queens' Birthday. As it's a national holiday most Dutch people get the day off.

Our current Queen is Queen Beatrix. The tradition started on 31 August 1885, which was the Birthday of Princess Wilhelmina, later Queen Wilhelmina.
Since 1949, after the ascension of Queen Juliana, Queen's Day is Queen Juliana's birthday on 30 April. Queen Beatrix has her birthday on the 31st of January, but since the weather is usually not that great then, and to honor the Queen mother Juliana, she kept it in the 30th of April. Ow yes, and she also became Queen on that day in 1980.

It is always a day full of festivities and the Royal family of Orange-Nassau always visit one or two cities in the country.
A typical thing to do is visit a 'freemarket', where the Dutchies are allowed to sell their old stuff in the street.
Others are visiting (free) music festivals. Many towns also have street fairs and markets.
Our city, the Hague, is known for their celebration of Queens' night. This is on the evening before the 30th.
There are many music stages set up in the city centre and also all the bars in town are opened till late...

On queens' day most people will dress in orange, as it is the color of the Royal family of Orange-Nassau (and also the color of the Dutch national football team).
This is often referred to as 'Orange craze' ('oranjegekte' in Dutch).

Last year some crazy guy in a little black car tried to crash through the audience and hit the bus with the royal family. Luckily he did not succeed,
and crashed against a big monument on the way. But unfortunately he did drive through part of the audience and thus injuring and killing some people.
We are really hoping nothing bad happens this year, cause we are afraid if there is something bad like that, we will never be allowed to celebrate Queens' day again.

Well, I'm off to get myself a carrot beer, that's nice orangy color in style of Queens'day! Cause people here willl also eat and drink orange colored drinks and food.

Signing of,
Agent Valentino