A royal good morning - Willem-Alexander gets ready to celebrate the first ever King's Day with Queen Maxima and their three daughters
The event, a national holiday, marks the birthday of Willem-Alexander. The tradition of Queen's Day was started in 1885 as a kind of princess' day when the fifth birthday of the heiress to the throne, Wilhelmina, was celebrated as a national event. When she became Queen of the Netherlands in 1890, at the age of ten, the event became Queen's Day and for almost sixty years the last day of August was the day for celebrations. But when her daughter, Juliana, took the throne on Wilhelmina's abdication in 1948 she moved Queen's Day to her own birthday, April 30th, and a spring holiday was born.
Juliana of the Netherlands on one of her Queen's Days
Queen Beatrix, who was born on January 31, stuck with April 30 and so retained the spring date for her Queen's Day celebrations but the first king of the Netherlands for over a century has chosen to use his own birthday for the occasion. And so, on April 26th 2014 thousands took to the streets for special events with the king and queen playing tennis and joining their three daughters in celebrations.
King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima, Princess Beatrix along with Princess Amalia, Princess Alexia and Princess Ariane on King's Day 2014
It was all in contrast to the very muted celebrations for the birthday of Europe's other new monarch. King Philippe of the Belgians turned 54 on April 15th 2014 but the occasion was marked with a short statement on the monarchy's Facebook page and an archive photo of the monarch. Just as much in keeping with his country's traditional way of marking royal birthdays.
The photo used on the Belgian Monarchy's Facebook page to mark the 54th birthday of King Philippe
Two new monarchs with birthdays less than a fortnight apart and accession dates less than three months apart. So much in common but when it comes to birthdays, it's a very different story.
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