Comments | yady: Not a good day for the Netherlands

yady

Not a good day for the Netherlands

Apr 30, 2009 15:10

Today, April 30th, is the Dutch national holiday, Queensday (the celebration of the birthday of our queen, although her real birthday is in Januari, so she kept on the date of her mother's birthday because this time of year the weather is nicer). The entire country is partying, everything is orange, there are flea markets and music events and games ( Read more... )

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Comments 9

arielstarshadow April 30 2009, 13:33:10 UTC

Sorry to hear about the troubles on what should be a lovely holiday. :(

hippo22 April 30 2009, 14:53:28 UTC

I'd have to research the year, but before the British queen switched to riding in a carriage rather than attending on horse back, some protester fired blanks at her on the official birthday parade.

feodora April 30 2009, 16:26:51 UTC

I heard about it in the news. Its awful.
I know koniginchedag from childhood as I grew up near dutch boarder (Gennep/Boxmer/Nijmegen). Because we have a holiday on the frist of may all the germans near the boarder go to holland for shopping, we always said its a reward because they come over on the 30th of April.
I think the day can never again be what it was.... So sorry. Latest news said there are 4 dead now and many many injured.... and it seemed to be NO accident.

yady April 30 2009, 19:16:13 UTC

No accident, indeed, though exactly why it happened we may never know, as the driver of the car is in critical condition and rumours of him being braindead or even having died already are going around (though the latter have been denied officially, I think).

The official number of injured is 16 now (or, was 17, until news came in that another person had died).

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yady April 30 2009, 19:20:38 UTC

Quite :(

I'd not seen the queen as emotional as in her TV statement before, either. She looked as if she'd been crying, and she referred to herself and the royal family as 'I' and 'my family'. And she wasn't even wearing a hat.

I truly hope they won't stop the Queensday we know over this...

feodora May 1 2009, 09:14:02 UTC

In german news they always say its the queens birthday but truly it was Queen Julianas birthday (her mother ) right?

yady May 1 2009, 10:41:41 UTC

Yeah, the Queen Beatrix kept the date of her mother's birthday for two reasons, to honour her mother, and rather more practica, because the weather tends to be rather mire suitable for outside celebrations in late April than in January.

supermouse May 1 2009, 11:41:36 UTC

I was afk all day yesterday after eating some bad fish, so I am catching up now.

*Poor* .nl. What a crappy thing to happen.