By Collin Kornfeind

April 30 is Queen’s Day; Koninginnedag in Dutch. The massive, city-wide celebration for the head of the Netherlands monarchy, Queen Beatrix, is the biggest birthday party in the world. Although the actual birthday of Queen Beatrix is January 31, the birthday party is continuously set for April 30 in respect for the previous queen, Queen Juliana; the current queen still celebrates her “birthday” on this day.

Originally intended to ceebrate the unification of the Netherlands in the late 1800s, Queen’s Day is now a day of “free market.” In other words, if anyone wants to sell anything they possess, they simply set up a carpet or table on the street on Queen’s Day and sell, sell, sell. It’s a day-long, city-wide flea market with over half-a-million visitors. And beer, lots and lots of beer.

Personally, I carried a five-liter keg of Heineken in my backpack all day, constantly stopping and going while filling up a plastic cup and bumping my way through the streets. The reason for this being that, although it is a “free market” day, the government passed a law in recent years stating the sale of alcohol without a license is still illegal, so everyone carries their own. You run the risk of having your bag searched for drugs and obscene amounts of alcohol, but you really have better odds getting kissed by Queen Beatrix herself.

It is crazy thing to witness: an entire city partying, drinking, eating, selling knickknacks, cruising down the canals in packed boats, blasting music around every corner and (mostly) all dressed in orange. The reason behind the orange apparel is that the founders and liberators of the Netherlands were from the House of Orange-Nassau, the first being William I of Orange who fought the Spanish and led the Netherlands to freedom. Everything orange is actually a tribute to the founding fathers of the Netherlands and-though Matt Lauer already beat me to this-that is why the Knicks have blue and orange colors because those colors were a tribute to the Dutch royal family back when New York was New Amsterdam.

Even weirder was the fact that no one was belligerent, no one caused problems and the police were stagnant with eyes constantly panning over the drunken masses.

It felt strange shuffling shoulder-to-shoulder down countless streets with a keg on my back, wearing an orange fedora and blue tie and just sinking in the life around me. Koninginnedag was truly an epic party that I would recommend to anyone who thinks that the “My Super Sweet 16” parties are sweet.

On a side note: this is going to be my last “Double Dutch” article for the year. It has been a year to remember and I hope that you intend to visit the great city of Amsterdam in the near future, experiencing the Dutch way of life first-hand. Until I return to Hofstra, tot-ziens!

Orange is the color of the House of Orange, founding family of The Netherlands, and they show their pride on Queen’s Day to an absurd level amongst shoulder-to-shoulder street crowds. (Collin Kornfeind)

Some antique Dutch clothing on some typical Queen’s Day partyers heading down an Amsterdam canal. (Collin Kornfeind)