Netherlands: Woningsdag

Koningdag in the Netherlands is celebrated on 27 April each year, and marks the birthday of King Willem-Alexander. In 2013, the last Queens Day was celebrated, but after the abdication of Queen Beatrix, the day was changed to Kings Day. I vividly remember the last Koninginnedag seven years ago: A festive holiday with orange-cladded crowds singing and dancing in the streets, and all radio stations playing songs dedicated to the Queen.

This year, Koningsdag became Woningsdag... Roughly translated as "staying at home" day.
Therefore, every day since mid-March 2020 has technically been Woningsdag. Not only in the Netherlands, but worldwide.

For Woningsdag, the plan was for the whole country to sing the National anthem from their balconies at 10:00, followed by virtual markets (since selling second-hand items are a big part of Koningsdag), playing old Dutch games in the park (children only, since the social-distancing rules don't apply to the youth), eating orange tompouchen, a message from the King in the afternoon, and news coverage of how the aforementioned activities are being performed in each province.

Alas, our neighbourhood must not be musically inclined, because 10:00 came and went without a single sound or false note.
Right, not a very festive start to the day, but not to fear and onward to the next activity!

And then, we of course realised that we had no wifi. Therefore, no internet or tv and no chance of getting it fixed until after Woningsdag, once everyone returned to work. So we skipped 90% of the planned activities and quickly progressed to the baking (and eating) part of the day.

We made caramel brownies, because tompouche is either not a recognised dessert in our parts of the country, or it is so popular that it was sold out days before Woningsdag.

The Plan vs. Reality

We did go for a walk to enjoy the sunshine, since this Koningsdag was reported as the warmest and sunniest ever with temperatures of up to 20 °C. And I am happy to confirm that there were kids playing games in the park... like any other day. Whether the games were "old Dutch games" like they were supposed to be, I have no idea. But there was a ball and the children were Dutch, so I guess that's close enough.

If it weren't for the Dutch flags displayed in most gardens, it would have honestly felt just like any other (wonings) day since mid-March.

Woningsdag 2020 was a nice, albeit normal day in the Netherlands.
But let's hope Koningsdag and the orange festivities will return next year!