Bevrijdingsdag (Liberation Day) is the day after Remembrance Day in the Netherlands. The Dutch celebrate Bevrijdingsdag like the Americans celebrate the 4th of July (but with fewer fireworks — the Dutch are not allowed to blow them up until New Year’s Eve).
You can find picnics and barbecues all over the parks in town. The larger parks often have music festivals, complete with what you would expect at your typical outdoor festival — portable standing urinals (no equivalent for the ladies, which leads to resentment), fried foods and expensive beer. The Park Transwijk in Utrecht holds one such festival. Over 38,000 people were there when I went.
It’s also one of the rare moments you’ll see Dutch flags flying from people’s homes. As proud as the Dutch people are, they only show their national pride a few times a year — and only during public holidays like this.
(Or just as important: during football matches.)
