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Queen's Day celebration parade with local families, Schinveld, the Netherlands (Scarborough photo)

Today is Queen's Day in the Netherlands, rather the equivalent of Fourth of July in the US in terms of the patriotic showing of colors (lots of orange, in this case, representing the Dutch Royal House of Orange.) 

Since 1980, the event celebrates the birthday of Princess Juliana, mother of the current monarch, Queen Beatrix, but it also celebrates the Netherlands in general and is a good reason for a rousing party or going out on parade.

It also means that many businesses and museums are closed all around the country, which is fine if you live there and expected it, but not so fine if you are a tourist and are caught unawares.  You could just put on some orange and go join the party, but wouldn't it have been nice to know about this ahead of time?   The Dutch also recognize Christian holy days around Easter/springtime like Ascension Day, Pentecost and Whit Monday, especially in the heavily Catholic southern part of the country.

Visitors to Great Britain often run into the same problem -- it's called a "bank holiday."  There you are in London, ready to sightsee, and everything is closed.

Always check the tourist Web site of any country you're going to visit, to find out about local holidays so you can plan accordingly.  I've also found a handy Web site from a French company that publishes diaries -- no, in the UK and most of Europe, a diary is a calendar, not a journal.  The company has a page for World Holidays that is searchable by country or date.  Info is only available for the current year, but it's a great start if you're trying to nail down an itinerary.

Technorati tags:  travel, family travel, world holidays, bank holidays