Before anyone reminds me I am fully aware that King's Day was a couple days ago though I have been highly involved in charity activities. I was lucky enough to attend Cardiff University with a girl who's family hails from the Kingdom of the Netherlands so I had ample time and wish to understand some of their amazing culture.
King's Day did not start out that way because in the mid 1800's the King of the Netherlands was a rather unpopular monarch so there was little interest of commencing a national holiday in his name. This can't be said about his daughter, the Princess of Orange, who was very popular with all her peoples there the King announced Princess's Day to be first market on her fifth birthday. When she was crowned Queen of the Netherlands on the passing of her father the national holiday was renamed Queen's Day.
Unlike many national holidays the date Queen's Day was marked was dependent on the birthday of the monarch until 1980 when Queen Beatrix became Queen and she decided to honour her mother and keep Queen's Day as her birthday.
The monarch of the Netherlands in recent years has used the national holiday to visit one or more towns and / or cities in their Kingdom. Queen Beatrix used the day to honour her people in a similar was as the British monarch does via her Birthday Honours List.
2014 was the first time that the national holiday was referred to as King's Day as it was the first year since it's conception that the Kingdom of the Netherlands had a King instead of a Queen.
I believe that the United Kingdom should join Canada, who already has a national holiday for the Queens birthday - Victoria Day, and have Trooping the Colour as a national holiday for British people to mark our Queen's birthday. Perhaps this can be combined with the push to make St. George's Day a national holiday.
No comments:
Post a Comment