The Royal House of the Netherlands recently announced how Princess Beatrix and Princess Margriet would celebrate their upcoming birthdays.
The former Queen of the Netherlands, Princess Beatrix, will celebrate her 80th birthday on 31 January privately in the presence of family and friends.
Princess Margriet, who turns 75 on 19 January, will celebrate with family and friends at the Orpheus Theatre in Apeldoorn. There, Princess Margriet will take in a show by Introdans, a dance company of which she is the patron.
Princess Margriet will watch shows put on by Jiří Kylián, Hans van Manen, and Po-Cheng Tsai.
On 3 February, Princess Beatrix will host a birthday reception for invited guests at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam.
On her last milestone birthday in 2013, she was still Queen Beatrix, having announced her abdication on 28 January. She marked the day itself in private with family and friends but celebrated a few days later at the Beatrixtheater in Utrecht with then-Prince Willem-Alexander, Princess Máxima and Princess Mabel.
The Dutch celebrate Koningsdag (“King’s Day”) on 27 April each year, to mark the monarch’s official birthday – much like how Queen Elizabeth celebrates her official birthday in June. During Princess Beatrix’s reign, it was named Koninginnedag (“Queen’s Day”) and celebrated on 30 April.
Princess Margriet was born in Ottawa during the height of the Second World War. Before her birth, the Canadian government had to declare the maternity ward extraterritorial to Canada so that the newborn would be wholly Dutch and not Dutch-Canadian.
Her 70th birthday was marked in Canada. The Dutch flag was raised on behalf of the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages.
Member of Parliament, Rod Bruinooge said at the time, “Today we raise the Dutch flag on Parliament Hill once again, where it will fly until sunset tomorrow, the day of the Princess’s 70th birthday…The birth of Princess Margriet established a special relationship between our two countries.”
