Public holidays
On this page you will find a list of Dutch public holidays and other special days.
Public holidays
Schools and companies are generally closed on the following days:
| Next celebrated on... | Name of holiday | Other info |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | New Year's Day | |
| 24-25 Apr 2011 | Easter (Sunday + Monday | |
| 30 Apr | Queen's Day | If a Sunday, it is celebrated on the previous Saturday |
| 5 May | Liberation Day | Official holiday only once every 5 years |
| 2 June 2011 | Ascension Day | 40 days after Easter |
| 12 & 13 June 2011 | Whitsun (Sunday + Monday) | 7 weeks after Easter |
| 25-26 Dec | Christmay + Boxing Day |
Companies and business generally stick to the same holidays, with the exception of Liberation Day, when most of them do not close. Schools will usually also be closed on Good Friday, the Friday before Easter.
Other important days
Other important days include:
| Next celebrated on... | Name | Other info |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Feb | Valentine's Day | |
| 6-8 March 2010 | Carnival | Celebrated mainly in Southern parts of the country |
| 8 Mar | Women's Day | |
| 1 May | Labour Day | |
| 4 May | War Remembrance | |
| 8 May 2011 | Mother's Day | |
| 19 Jun 2011 | Father's Day | |
| 15 Sep 2009 | "Prince's Day" | Opening day of Dutch Parliament, 3rd Tuesday in September |
| 11 Nov | St Martin's Day | Celebrated in some parts of the country only |
| 5 Dec | St Nicholas' Eve | Sinterklaas |
| 15 Dec | Kingdom's Day | Signing of Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands by Princess Juliana in 1954. |
Easter
The tradition of painting eggs for Easter is done with real painted eggs that are hidden for children to find. Easter is celebrated over two days, with Easter Monday being a popular shopping day, especially for furniture.
Liberation day
May 5 commemorates the end of World War II. May 4, which is Remembrance Day, and May 5 have changed focus in the past years, marking over 50 years since Holland was liberated from the German occupation. Today, these holidays tend to focus on tolerance and anti-racism. On Liberation Day many street markets and music festivals are organised in the main cities.
Carnival
The celebration before Lent in celebrated in Holland in an exhuberant way. You will find parades complete with local dignitaries caricatured in papier-mache figures and hear songs making fun at the local mayor and others. There are strange, grotesque, papier-mache figures on floats and people dressed up in outrageous outfits. Brass bands blast out music as the normally are consumed with vigor and TV and radio devote hours to popular Carnival songs which may be funny and/or obscene.
Confused by the fact that Carnival is a catholic tradition and Holland is typically Protestant? This is one place where you can see the mark of Holland's history. While it's true that Holland is usually characteried as a Protestant culture, the south of Holland holds the remnants of its Catholic past (its Belgian Flemish neighbours are also tradionally Catholic). Accordingly, it is mostly in the south of Holland where you will find these famous Carnival parties.
Sinterklaas (St Nicholas' Eve)
In addition to Christmas the Dutch have a very special day on December 5th. Instead of Santa Claus, a patron saint called "Sinterklaas" comes to visit. He hails from Spain and is helped by Moors, each one called "Black Pete". He fills childrens wooden shoes with candy and presents. Sinterklaas predates Santa Claus, though Santa has also become popular in modern times. Once children have outgrown Sinterklaas, many families continue the tradition with a "Secret Santa" game, where each family gets the name of another member by drawing names. Each person presents the person whose name they have drawn with a present and a loving yet humourous poem composed about him or her.
To learn more about this important day, visit Wikipedia .
David Sedaris has written a humerous essay on Sinterklaas from the perspective of a foreigner coming across this tradtion for the first time. You might enjoy reading "Six to eight black men".
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