Fun King’s Day facts
- The first Royal celebration took place on August 31, 1885. At that time we celebrated the fifth birthday of Princess Wilhelmina. It was then called Princess Day. When Wilhelmina became queen in 1890, the name changed to Queen's Day.
- The original reason for King's Day (formerly Queen's Day) is to strengthen national unity.
- In 2014 we celebrated the first King's Day in honour of the birthday of our King Willem-Alexander.
- Until 2014, Queen's Day was celebrated on April 30. Many tourists carry old Lonely Planets with the April 30 date in it. Next to that the date is still incorrectly indicated on many websites. This results into groups of orange-dressed people strolling around Amsterdam every year in search of festivities that are not there. They are also called the ‘mistake tourists’ (vergistoeristen).
- King Willem-Alexander was born in Utrecht in 1967.
- King Willem-Alexander is the first male monarch in The Netherlands since 123 years!
- King's Day is also celebrated in the Netherlands Antilles.
- King's Day is the most popular holiday in The Netherlands after Christmas.
- Every year, approximately 100 million euros are spent on orange coloured items in the Netherlands.
- The sales of tompoezen (cream puffs) increases by 600% around King's Day.