Today's word is Queen Day, or in Dutch, Koninginnedag. I was reminded today of my delight when I first encountered Queen Day. Each year on this day, now April 30, the Dutch celebrate their Queen's birthday. Over time, the celebration has come to incorporate a much wider range of activities than a simple birthday for the Queen.
On Queen Day, Dutch people have a national vrijmarkt, which means that they can sell anything in the street that day and also on koniginnenacht (the night before). It is also an occasion for oranjegekte (orange craze), when the colour orange is worn or otherwise used in a wide range of settings - "orange banners, orange colored foods and drinks, and extreme amounts of orange clothing and creative accessories are worn as well. Sometimes even the water in fountains is dyed orange", according to the Wikipedia. The Wikipedia goes on "it is not uncommon for people to impersonate the queen, not always in a flattering manner."
Although the Wikipedia article describes the Queen's Official Birthday in Commonwealth countries, such as ours, as "a similar occasion", I'm afraid that the reverse is true. The Queen's Birthday, as celebrated in Australia, is our dullest public holiday. The only specific celebration is poring through the Queen's birthday honours list in the newspapers to look for the names of friends and relatives or, more likely, remote acquaintances. What can we do? Suggestions are most welcome and will be conveyed to the appropriate authorities.
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Derek Whitehead
What this blog is for
This is a blog which started in 2007 when I was standing for election as vice president of ALIA (the Australian Library and Information Association) - to communicate with members and canvas issues. It also continued during my year as president, which ended in May 2009.
It morphed into a more general blog, and I used it to communicate on a variety of issues - libraries, copyright, the internet, but particularly, just words. Over time, it became a blog mainly about language.
It morphed into a more general blog, and I used it to communicate on a variety of issues - libraries, copyright, the internet, but particularly, just words. Over time, it became a blog mainly about language.
It lapsed in 2012 but I have decided to revive it, and it will be about language and maybe sometimes some other things. Neologisms are unavoidable and an endless source of interest and fun. Talking with a bilingual person, and attempting to learn a language, I have also become more vividly aware of the confusing strangeness of many idioms. I will post about idioms later.
Please promote it to your friends. My short-term goal is to attract a second follower, but I have longer term goals too.
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About Me
- Derek Whitehead
- Melbourne, Australia
- Derek is an Adjunct Professor at Swinburne University of Technology and at RMIT University, and the Chair of the Australian Digital Alliance. He retired in January 2015 as CIO and Director, Information Technology Services at Swinburne, and has had a long career as a librarian and copyright officer. He has had a long engagement with the internet since his involvement in the establishment of the pioneering Vicnet service in 1994. Derek was awarded an OAM in 2002 for services to libraries and the internet.
3 comments:
Hi Derek, perhaps the fact that the Queen's Birthday is nothing more than just-another-public-holiday here is because so many of us these days don't relate to Elizabeth II as "ours" in any way. Elizabeth seems like a distant irrelevancy, whereas for the Dutch their Koningin Beatrix (and royal family) remains a vital part of their culture and national history. No offense intended, of course!
Thank you CW, I agree with you. This is why I would like to replace Queen's Birthday with Wattle Day (1 September). But that's a long story.
A Dutch reader of this blog writes: "Holland isn't a place for introverts. On the aforesaid koninginnedag, the native go 'out of their roofs' to translate literally an expression which essentially means 'they
live it up big time' or 'they fail to adhere to conventional norms of
behaviour', depending on your particular perspective."
Perhaps we could learn from this when we replace Queen's Birthday, although we might make more allowance for interoverts.
Hmmm, Wattle Day? I need to learn more :)
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