St. Patrick's Day vs. Queens Day

I wrote an article for English, so why not share it with you?!

Binnenkort weer een Nederlandse blog met daarin mijn ervaringen in Dublin. Maar ik heb nu net voor Engels een stuk moeten schrijven waarin ik St. Patrick's Day vergelijk met een Nederlandse nationale feestdag. En deze post ik hieronder even, wellicht wel interessant om te lezen.

Comparing Ireland’s national holiday to the Netherlands’ national holiday: St. Patrick vs. Queen Beatrix van Oranje

St. Patrick’s Day is one of the largest festivities in the world, being held in many cities throughout our planet. New York has the oldest and biggest parade that celebrates St. Patrick’s Day, and many other cities that hold Irish immigrants have their own parade.
Being the capitol of Ireland, Dublin celebrates St. Patrick’s Day with a large parade too. Thousands of native Irish and tourists visit Dublin’s O’connel street to see this grand spectacle that is annually held. Hundreds of volunteers put in their efforts to make this years parade the best one the world has ever seen. It was my first time, being a St. Patrick freshy from the Netherlands, and like all healthy humans I compared it to the national holidays I know. The Netherlands knows several national holidays like St. Nicholas (5 December), the Freedom Festival (5 May) and Queens Day (30 April). Because of the atmosphere and similarities between the two festivities, I chose to compare Queens Day to St. Patrick’s Day and pick my favourite. In all my objectivity, I will now first describe what Queens Day implies.
Koninginnedag – which can be translated as Queens Day – is the celebration of the Dutch queen’s birthday. The first Queens Day was held on 31 August 1885, the fifth birthday of princess Wilhelmina. After Juliana followed up Wilhelmina as queen in 1948, the date was changed to her birthday: 30 April. From then on, Queens Day is celebrated on that date. Queen Beatrix decided to keep the date, although her birthday is on 31 January. This is partly because the weather in April is much better. Queens Day, how I see it, is celebrated best the Middle, Western and Eastern parts of the Netherlands. Especially in the cities of Utrecht, Arnhem and Zwolle the parties are massive and many so-called “free-markets” are organised. But the biggest and best celebrations are in Amsterdam. Hundreds of thousands of Dutch come to the capitol dressed out in orange (the national colour) to stroll the markets, party at every street corner, drink, chant and many come to just enjoy the amazing atmosphere. National and international artists perform on the many squares that are present in Amsterdam and the biggest outdoor party of the year is being held on the Museumplein (Rijksmuseum square), where each year more than 350,000 people gather to celebrate the nation’s favourite national holiday together. All dressed up in orange of course.
To compare the two happenings, I decided (upfront) to look at atmosphere, visitor count, things to do and nuisance. Firstly I will report on these aspects, secondly I will talk about some personal additional things that happened to me during St. Patrick’s Day and finally I will write down my verdict.
The largest difference between the two festivities is that in the Netherlands the festival still has their (in psychology so-called) hero: The queen. As St. Patrick is no longer alive, it is more difficult to use this hero is the festivities. Dublin tries to do this by organising a parade, while in the Netherlands the queen and the entire royal family visit two cities to connect and get in touch with the people. All this is broadcasted live on national (and international, for instance German) television. The parade in Dublin showed me just one “figurine” of St. Patrick, and the whole thing was a bit disappointing. I expected more from it, as it was told to me that this would be “the best parade in the world”. After half an hour of not being able to see the parade properly due to badly organised viewing facilities we all left disappointed to eat something and start the day with a drink. And that is just where the next big difference jumps in: It is illegal to drink alcoholic beverages and beers on the streets during the national holidays in Ireland. While in (almost) every other country in the world this is allowed, Irish law forbids to drink in public and Garda police officers are patrolling to fine young people who are enjoying their beer on the streets or in the parks. This was sort of disappointing for me, as it made me feel not entirely free (a feeling that should be prominent on national holidays when celebrating with your fellow natives and having this feeling of restored unity among society again, even if it is just for one day). But I found the largest difference in the atmosphere on the street, and this was due to the fact that there was nothing to do except for just hanging around with friends in the park or going to a pub. There was no music outside, no games, no markets, no disgusting and poisoning food stalls, etc. So while you are constantly being entertained during Freedom Day and Queens Day, in Dublin there was nothing to see or to do except for the disappointing parade.
Then the night time. Dublin is known for its many bars, and this indeed is what is best in the Irish capitol. Dozens of drunken Irish are gathering around in the pub to act as stupid as can be, and this creates a funny and great atmosphere. I loved to see that Dubliners were happy for a change, because you feel the recession sucking the life out of these once so lively boys and girls. St. Patrick’s Day therefore is a great opportunity for Irish to go into the pub once more and forget about life for a while. And this is what a national holiday should be like. The only thing that I missed were the great gigs at night by international performers. With Felix da Housecat and Laurant Garnier as the only two international DJ’s present on the 16th and 17th of March, it was striking to see the difference with the Netherlands, where in more than fifty venues throughout the country the world’s best performers are shining and playing their best tunes to please the crowds. KoninginneNacht (Queens Eve), as it is called, is the favourite night of Dutch music lovers because there are so many different parties to choose from. All genres are available and clubs stay open around the clock to please the public. This is where Dublin could learn from the Netherlands, as it would even improve the Irish night life.
Personally, I suffered from thieves during St. Patrick’s Week. On Paddy’s eve, my jacket was stolen (with my keys in it) and on St. Patrick’s Day somebody stole my flag. As these things can always happen, it certainly effects your mood and your attitude towards all the things around you. That night I declared I lost my faith in the Irish society, and although I did some rethinking on my thoughts I am still very disappointed because of all this. This is strengthened by the fact that I also know three other (Erasmus) persons whose personal belongings (like coats and wallets) were stolen too. But I will not let these feelings effect my final verdict, is similar things could have happened on every other day and in every other place in the world.
When comparing St. Patrick’s Day to Queens Day, I must honestly say that I enjoyed my nights during the festival week, but St. Patrick’s Day itself was fairly disappointing. No music, no fun and no drinks means no craic. Dressing up in green or orange does not make a difference, the weather was equally as good but the lack of things to see, feel, hear and do made me in favour of the Dutch Queens Day.