Talk:Koningsdag

Dutch Royal Family?
The following text needs correction:

''The color orange is a ubiquitous sight on Queen's Day, as it represents the House of Orange, which is the name of the current Dutch royal family. ''

The sentence is wrong because in the Netherlandse the Dutch Royal family (Orange-Nassau) is the only family who ruled the Kingdom of Netherlands since 1815. So the word current is wrong. Before 1815 the Netherlands had the Kingdom of Holland ruled by the House of Napoleon, but that isn't a Dutch family. Greetings, and a happy koninnedag for al the Dutch people in foreign lands!

If I may add... Before the french occupied the Netherlands the family of Oranje-Nassua ruled the country for many years, but it was not a Kingdom, but as "Stadhouder". The House of Oranje (named after the french city of Orange) has been longer involved (and yes ruled Kings and Queens after 1815) then any other monarchy in Europe.

Visitors in Amsterdam
Soetermans changed the upper range of the number of visitors in Amsterdam from 2 million to 800.000, with the claim "no way that the city of Amsterdam could hold 2 million people; this year was a top one with 800,000 (!))" ('this year' being 2007). But I noticed that it was not quite as crowded as some other years. Could Amsterdam hold 2 million people? Let's take the centre proper. 2 x 2 = 4 km2. Let's say 10% of that is street. That gives us 400.000 m2. One would then have to fit 5 people on 1 m2. Ok, that's rather crowded, although in some parts of the Jordaan it is no exaggeration. But the area is rather bigger, maybe 10% is a bit of a low figure, not everyone is in the streets (think of the many boats) and not everyone will be there at the same time (not all day). Still, it is pushing it, but other years have been more crowded than 2007. How does one make estimates like this? DirkvdM 13:46, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
 * One would not make such an estimate here. It would be original research, leave to the police to think about this. C mon 15:52, 1 May 2007 (UTC)


 * True, but note it was Soetermans' OR and I just tried to reason that through. So Soetermans' edit was invalid and shuld bebreverted. Still, a source would be better. DirkvdM 10:44, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

House of Orange / Oranje
I don't know the habits of the English language, but in Dutch the name of the royal family is Oranje (with a J) and not Orange (with a G). So if one writes House of Orange it strikes me as wrong. Do you natively English speaking guys agree with that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Josdorpjossie (talk • contribs) 12:23, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Citation needed
I've removed some citation needed templates. When all Dutch citizens can tell you what traditional queensday for the Queen means - we don't need more sources I hope. JacobH (talk) 16:52, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Map of Location of Crash
http://openstreetmap.org/?mlat=52.22728&mlon=5.94551&zoom=17

Use the export tab to get SVG or other formats. License: CC-BY-SA. Attribute: OpenStreetMap

-- Firefishy (talk) 12:44, 30 April 2009 (UTC)
 * There are already maps uploaded by the dutch wikipedians. Unfortunately, they kinda lack in clarity. I can add one of them if desired. —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 15:17, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Identity of driver in car attack and terrorist motive
I have changed the wording that described the driver as being 'of Dutch descent'. The link to the BBC report says nothing of the sort. In the BBC report the man is described as a 'Dutch national'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Joelhowells (talk • contribs) 15:14, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Move to Queen's Day
I'm pondering moving this page to Queen's Day. This in order to adhere to Naming conventions (use English). In my opinion, Queen's Day is an accepted and common translation of Koninginnedag. Does anyone see any reason not to do this ? —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 13:06, 2 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Looking on Google English hits I find 748,000 English pages for "Koninginnedag" and 129,000 English pages for "Queen's Day". I suspect that until the horrific events on Thursday the holiday wasn't very well known about at all in the English speaking world and a glance at news hits (which I can't seem to filter by language) suggests that usage by the English speaking media is also mixed between the two (and there may be different predominant uses in different countries). I'd suggest holding back on any move for a month or two to see what emerges. Timrollpickering (talk) 16:23, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Article improvement
I've decided to improve this article, being at the event this year! Maybe it can be TFA for next year ...--Wehwalt (talk) 16:37, 30 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Where did you celebrate it and how was it? I'm looking forward to your improvements. Nice work so far. :)--Atlan (talk) 10:00, 1 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Amsterdam. It is the sixth time I've been in the Netherlands for it in nine years.  It was quite enjoyable but I don't stay late, just go to my hotel when I've had enough.--Wehwalt (talk) 10:56, 1 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Also, feel free to pitch in or comment. I think that once I can source a little more of the vrijmarkt information I'll send it off to WP:GAN.--Wehwalt (talk) 10:57, 1 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Sure, I'll check out the article when I have some time to spare.--Atlan (talk) 13:00, 1 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I've nommed it a good article, hopefully they will think well of it.--Wehwalt (talk) 13:23, 1 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Good article! The one thing that may be missing (if it still happens) is the habit (in smaller towns) to decorate the front of houses and hand out prizes for the best-decorated houses. --Whaledad (talk) 16:48, 3 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks! I need a source, a website or newspaper article that discusses that in order to use it.  I certainly will include it if one can be found and will look myself.  English or Dutch, Google translate is pretty good and there are plenty of Dutch speakers around.--Wehwalt (talk) 16:50, 3 May 2011 (UTC)
 * YW. I'm a Dutch speaker myself, and already had done some digging, but hadden't found a good link yet. (Most were just practical instructions form a city on dos and donts, but not on the real practice itself. --Whaledad (talk) 00:48, 6 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm open to ideas. Also any historical information would be welcome beyond what we already have.  This article is on the fast track for FAC and probably will get there in a couple of weeks.--Wehwalt (talk) 07:15, 6 May 2011 (UTC)
 * It is also celebrated by Netherlands embassies, in Australia there was a flea market in the embassy grounds. I guess it is celebrated in other countries too. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 11:55, 18 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Well, embassies are legally home ground ... I saw something on a celebration in San Francisco. I guess the question is, are overseas observances big enough to mention?--Wehwalt (talk) 13:44, 18 May 2011 (UTC)
 * There's also one at the Dutch consulate in Boston (I got invited to it). But such celebrations probably aren't really relevant to this article, since they're minor and likely confined to expats. Ucucha 20:15, 28 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Do they play koekhappen?--Wehwalt (talk) 20:25, 28 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I don't know, I didn't go. But it seems like they had a reception and a golf tournament. Ucucha 20:40, 28 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Anyway, I've got to get my next FAC ready Mercury dime. Sandy has been kind enough to allow me to wait a little less than the prescribed 2 weeks.--Wehwalt (talk) 20:53, 28 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Or perhaps longer. When something like this happens, I tend to sit and stare moodily at the article for a long time before much gets done.--Wehwalt (talk) 21:19, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

For future reference

 * ,, (there's more in this, on the media for instance),  (interesting), , , ,  (K'dag in 1941]. I'll see what ILL can get for me. Drmies (talk) 19:57, 28 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I used number 3 in the article, I think.  Are these full text for you?  I'm getting snippets of most.--Wehwalt (talk) 20:08, 28 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I saw you used it, yes--these are notes for me, I guess. No, I'm not getting full text for many of these, hence the ILL remark. I wish the Dutch would go a little farther with digitizing. They're so good at telling the rest of the world what to do, now let them take a hint from others. ;) Drmies (talk) 19:01, 29 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm trying to order the Encyclopedie van het Koninklijk Huis. They could use a branch of amazon in the Netherlands, if you ask me.  Very hard to find a bookshop that has it and that takes credit cards to ship it overseas.--Wehwalt (talk) 19:03, 29 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I always use Bol.com they have almost everything that you would want to buy, usually at decent prices, and they ship oversees. They have the Encyclopedie van het Koninklijk Huis as a used book. Whaledad (talk) 20:01, 29 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I saw it but I had trouble getting to the confirmation page. I will try again later.--Wehwalt (talk) 20:37, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

<--Wehwalt, in all this business of editing and reviewing, this may not have been clear at all: thanks for all your good work on this article. Perhaps you'll see yourself reward next year in the Lintjesregen. Drmies (talk) 23:33, 29 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Well, I've enjoyed my visits then, feel like educating others. Thank you.--Wehwalt (talk) 23:57, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Marie?
Whence the term 'marie'? The italics in the text suggest it's a Dutch word, but as a native Dutch speaker I am unacquainted with it. It isn't in the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, either. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.172.132.178 (talk) 11:26, 24 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I am Dutch too and have never heard of a marie. I suspect it is nonsense. MrBlueSky (talk) 01:08, 25 April 2012 (UTC)
 * It was inserted here: . Vandalism for sure. I'm going to revert it. MrBlueSky (talk) 01:12, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Name change
Considering the ascension of Willem-Alexander to the throne, the holiday actually changes names. Should the name of the article change, or should we wait until 2014 when it is more relevant? 19:16, 3 May 2013 (UTC)
 * As there has never been a Koningsdag yet, I think it should wait until next year. Last week it was still Koninginnedag, after all. I think the current intro reflects the upcoming changes quite well. Bever (talk) 16:56, 5 May 2013 (UTC)

Attack on the Royal Family
"In 2009, the Queen was celebrating Queen's Day in the city of Apeldoorn when a man attempted to attack her by trying to ram the Royal family's bus with his car; instead he drove into a crowd of people and crashed into a monument: seven people in the crowd were killed, as was the driver."

I know media shows like Fox News like to dramatize this event by calling it an "attack on the Royal Family", it is still unclear if he really wanted to hit the bus or intend any harm on the Queen herself. I don't think that line is factually correct, at least not as factual as possible. KarstenO (talk) 18:22, 26 April 2015 (UTC)