Orange craziness

Holland is slowly getting crazy. Orange crazy. In shops you can already find special stands filled with different kind of stuff, all in bright orange color. Hats, caps, scarfs, T-shirts, wigs, bracelets, hair spray, sunglasses, crowns... and many many more. Mostly things that are completly useless during all year, except of one day. On that one day, their value is highly increasing. They're almost priceless then. That day is very soon, just after the next weekend. The Queen's Day!

I start believing, it's a favorite day of all Dutch. They are discussing about their plans for Koninginnedag already since few weeks. The orange wave floods the whole country and the parties are taking place in every single city. Everyone is celebrating. The 30th of April is a national holiday. When I first heard about the Koninginnedag I have to say, I was a bit surprised with the fact, that the Dutch celebrate the day of their queen's birthday like that. It's a huge thing here! Actually, it's not even really their present queen's birthday. It's her mother's, princess Juliana's (the Dutch queen, when she's passing the throne to her daughter, she's getting back to the title of princess of the Netherlands). Someone would ask why don't they celebrate queen Beatrix's birthday? The reason: Beatrix was born on 31st of January... and the winter weather with cold temperatures is not very suitable for outdoor parties. So they decided to stay with more pleasent, spring date.  

Ok than. I have another mystery for you: Why do Dutch people love orange color so much? It's not on their flag. They don't grow oranges here. It's even hard to find this color in the landscape of Holland. Than why? Well, it's they way to show their national pride and comes from their big national hero Willem van Oranje (also known as William the Silent), who was leading the Dutch revolt agains the Spanish in 1561. He also founded the House of Oranje-Nassau, the present royal house. And than as you can see the name, from Oranje to orange color is not far :)

Yesterday we were shopping a bit with Monika (I already forgot how does it feel to go shopping with another girl... all day gone! :D). We had so much fun in this orange stand in one of the department stores. We were trying EVERYTHING! And now I realized I don't have anything in this bright color in my wardrobe. I need to get some gadgets or accessorie till the next weekend ;)