King’s Day in Amsterdam

King’s Day in Amsterdam

King’s Day is a national holiday when Dutch people celebrate the king’s birthday. In my opinion, King’s Day is likely to be the grandest party in the Netherlands. Dutch people celebrate King Willem Alexander’s birthday with music, street parties, flea markets, and fun fairs on April because King Willem Alexander was born on 27th of April.

Thanks to a period of holidays, Oliver, Jongmin and I were able to celebrate King’s Day in Amsterdam. All of us were international exchange students of Saxion University of Applied Science, but we were from different countries respectively. Oliver is an Austrian. Jongmin is from South Korea, and I am from Taiwan. Among three different cultures, we have learnt characteristic and respect from each other even though we had arguments sometimes.

One thing important is to wear something orange because the Dutch royal family bears the name: House of Oranje. Literally, this means the colour, orange. What we did in Amsterdam was drinking, drinking and drinking in the bar or on the street. There are plenty of street parties in different areas. Therefore, no matter which country you are from, all of us in Amsterdam celebrate together.

I would like to experience King’s Day again and again. Originally, King’s Day was a Dutch national holiday for the king’s birth. However, the fact is that it has also become an international event for years. The reason is that when you look around the streets in Amsterdam, you can find various nationalities apart from Dutch people. In my opinion, that is the beauty of a national holiday. A national holiday enables to be celebrated by foreigners. I hope some Taiwanese holidays and festivals can be celebrated and gloried by foreigners.