Dutch citizens asked to sing national anthem to celebrate King’s Day

The cancellation of King’s Day this year came as a disappointment to everyone, though it is completely understandable in the current situation. Luckily, the Concertgebouw Orchestra has a plan to raise everyone’s spirits: uncoordinated amateur singing at 10am on King’s Day. 

Nonetheless, we are expecting to see some sort of celebration, although it will be celebrated entirely from home, and is more symbolic than anything else, reports RTL Nieuws.

The Wilhelmus on King’s Day

The Concertgebouw Orchestra has called on social media that people sing the national anthem of the Netherlands, the Wilhelmus, on King’s Day. To achieve this purpose, the musicians of the Orchestra have even shared the different parts of the anthem on their official website.

The hashtag #Wilhelmus2020 can be used by those who want promote this, uh, interesting addition to King’s Day on social media. On King’s Day itself, you can use the hashtag when posting videos of yourself on the balcony demonstrating your love for the Dutch nation (or how badly you can sing, depends). It’s not yet clear how this is going to go over with our sober Dutchies.

But according to Willem-Alexander, if you learn a couple of verses each day from now til the 27th April, you should be just about ready to frighten the life out of the pigeons.

This potentially-nationwide croaking will start on King’s Day at 10:00 AM- usually, that’s when musical groups will play the anthem, and it’s the perfect time of day to make loud noise, as well.

Some Dutchies have expressed mild concern that this 10am singing requirement might be a little early for those of us who have a low tolerance for bullshit in the mornings.

Others were glad to see that Dutchies have built up mental resilience and strength over the last three weeks of coronavirus crisis, and are not even slight fazed by this new addition to a treasured celebration of an inherently flawed institution.

Peter here is planning on accompanying the Wilhelmus singers with a selection of his own favourite songs, none of which are the Wilhelmus, blasting from his speakers.

On a more serious and practical note, maybe this crisis is the perfect time to introduce a new, non-17th century anthem, which actually reflects the Netherlands today?

If you’d like to know more about the Wilhelmus and its origin as the national anthem of the Netherlands, give our article a check.

Will you be out on your balcony singing the national anthem on King’s Day? Let us know in the comments!

Feature Image: hanspetersmits/Pixabay

Vlad Moca-Grama
Vlad Moca-Grama
Vlad was born and raised in Brasov, Romania and came to the Hague to study. When he isn't spending time missing mountains or complaining about the lack of urban exploration locations in the Netherlands, you can find him writing at Dutch Review.

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