Last Saturday the countries that belong to the Kingdom of The Netherlands celebrated the Queen's birthday. In Dutch it is called Koninginnedag and in Papiamento it is Anja di La Reina.
It is in reality not the queen's actual birthday, that's in January, but Queen Beatrix decided that when she ascended the throne that she would continue to honor her mother, the late Queen Juliana, and to keep celebrating her birthday as the Queen's birthday.
We've had three generations of Queens. Wilhelmina, Juliana, and Beatrix. For 116 years our monarch has been a woman. While this has not been the magic bullet to take care of sexism, I do believe that it has helped the woman's movement.
The Queen is respected in Aruba, probably even more than in the Netherlands. To me she is a symbol of unity. The countries that form the Dutch Kingdom have different politcs, different cultures, different ideas, but we have only one Queen. I think that for this idea alone the monarchy should be upheld.
On this day, being Dutch is embraced.The Dutch flags are decorated gaily with the orange ribbons. On the radio Dutch patriotic songs are playing, which is a rarity indeed. There are kite-flying contests, bakesales, miniature boat competions, miniature plane competitions.
It is one of those days that makes you feel relaxed and glad to live on this island.
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