Traditions of Amsterdam
A canal city of King's Day in orange, Sinterklaas arrivals by boat and herring eaten by the tail.
Amsterdam is built on canals and is the capital of the Netherlands. Its calendar of folk traditions is rich: King's Day, on 27 April, when the city turns orange and everyone sells their belongings in street markets, and Sinterklaas in December, when children are given gifts on the evening of 5 December.
King's Day and Sinterklaas
On Koningsdag, people wear orange, stroll on boats and set up vrijmarkt, free markets, on pavements. In mid-November, Sinterklaas arrives by steamboat from Spain in a harbour parade, and children put out a shoe for gifts. At the New Year, oliebollen, deep-fried dough balls, are eaten.
At the table
Raw herring with onions, haring, in new season in June, stroopwafels, and poffertjes, are Dutch street foods. Dutch pancakes and pea soup, erwtensoep, are winter meals. A Dutch breakfast has bread with chocolate sprinkles, hagelslag. Jenever is a juniper spirit.
Signature traditions of Amsterdam
Also part of it, and being written: King's Day (The national day.), Oliebol (The New Year fritter.), Stroopwafel (The syrup waffle.), Haring (The herring.).
A trail idea for Amsterdam
- Albert Cuyp Market Eat stroopwafels.
- Jordaan Walk the canals.
- Noordermarkt Visit the Saturday market.
Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Opening hours, markets and festival dates change; check locally before travelling. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
🇳🇱 Amsterdam, NetherlandsKing's DayKoningsdag
A Dutch national holiday celebrating the monarch's birthday with street markets and orange attire.Festival
🇸🇷 Paramaribo, Suriname and 1 moreKetikotiKeti Koti
An annual Emancipation Day marking the end of slavery in Suriname and the NetherlandsFestival
🇬🇷 Olympia, Greece and 5 moreOlympic flame
A flame kindled in Greece, carried by torch to light the cauldron of each GamesCeremony
🇳🇱 Amsterdam, Netherlands and 3 moreZwarte Piet
Saint Nicholas's companion in the Low Countries, who hands out sweets to childrenFolklore · Sweets given and shared
🇳🇱 Amsterdam, Netherlands and 4 moreSinterklaasSinterklaas / Sint-Nicolaas
A Dutch winter feast on 5 and 6 December, when Saint Nicholas brings gifts to childrenFestival · Sweets given and shared
🇳🇱 Wageningen, NetherlandsLiberation DayBevrijdingsdag
A Dutch national holiday on 5 May marking the end of German occupation in 1945Ceremony
🇳🇱 Amsterdam, NetherlandsTangomagia
An annual Amsterdam tango festival held in the last days of DecemberPerformance
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- King's Day: Carmelrmd, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Ketikoti: StarNieuws, CC BY 3.0, source
- Olympic flame: RuinDig/Yuki Uchida, CC BY 4.0, source
- Zwarte Piet: The illustrator is Daan Hoeksma, who died in 1935. The author is liste, Public domain, source
- Sinterklaas: R.F. (Roel) Jorna, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Liberation Day: Wouter Hagens, CC BY-SA 3.0, source