Whensday - King's Day in Belgium

It isn’t really celebrated here, but today, November 15, is King’s Day in Belgium. In the Netherlands King’s Day is celebrated across the country. There are orange flags everywhere and people set up spontaneous street markets to sell all sorts of second-hand goods and self-made food. Of course King’s Day in the Netherlands is at the end of April and often has beautiful weather. 

In Belgium most people may not even know that it is a special day. November 1 was All Saints day and everyone visited the graves of the loved ones who passed away. November 11 was just several days ago when the veterans were honored, mostly by those who have military family and know what it means. The same day is also the beginning of Carnaval for those who celebrate. Sinter Klaas (Saint Nicholas) is on his way to the country, arriving by boat and riding a horse. That happens on December 5 and 6. The children are especially waiting for that moment. So King’s Day in Belgium passes by without a sound. It is not even in the news. 

Mind you, King Philip of Belgium is a pretty quiet king. He takes his job seriously and is never boisterous, as the Dutch king sometimes has been. Many are waiting for the day that his eldest daughter will take the throne as the first queen of the country. Then Elizabeth will be able to celebrate “Queen’s Day”. In The Netherlands it went the other way around. Since the beginning of the 20th century there had only been queens. King Willem-Alexander brought the change from Queen’s Day to King’s Day in 2014. 

Around this day in 1946 the Dutch government was fighting with a fledgling Indonesia which was forming a new independent country. It would take several years before this fighting ended. The consequences of this struggle, with some Indonesians siding with the Dutch and others fighting deadly battles, have continued to this day. The Netherlands has a strong population of Indonesians who were evacuated from Indonesia to The Netherlands when the Dutch finally recognized Indonesia as a country. 

On November 15, 1948 the weather service recorded the warmest day of 17.3 degrees Celsius (63.1 F) in Maastricht. Today the temperature is not expected to rise above 10 degrees Celsius (49 F).