Why the Dutch wear orange

If you watched the Dutch national soccer team turn the Italian word champions into toast last night — or if you’ve ever been in Amsterdam during the annual Queen’s Day celebration — you may wonder why nearly all Dutch people dress in orange during such occasions.

Female soccer fan dressed in orange, and waving the Dutch flag.

© Telegraaf

After all, the colors of the official Dutch flag are red, white, and blue.

The answer is simple: Orange is the color of the Dutch Royal Family, which hails from the House of Orange.

More specifically:

The House of Orange-Nassau (in Dutch: Huis van Oranje-Nassau), a branch of the German House of Nassau, has played a central role in the political life of the Netherlands — and at times in Europe — since William I of Orange (also known as “William the Silent” and “Father of the Fatherland”) organized the Dutch revolt against Spanish rule, which after the Eighty Years’ War led to an independent Dutch state.
- Source: Wikipedia, last accessed June 10, 2008

Dutch soccer fans turn a stadium orange

© Telegraaf

To this date, members of the House of Orange are extremely popular in the Netherlands. The color orange has come to symbolize the country, and to signify national pride.

On royal birthdays, the Dutch tricolor is flown with an orange pennant above it. Each year on April 30, Amsterdam — and indeed the entire county — turns orange. Revelers can be heard to sing, “Oranje boven, oranje boven. leve the Koningin!” (Orange on top, Orange on top. Long Live the Queen!)

Oranje, Dutch for orange, is the nickname of the Dutch national soccer team.

During WWII, Dutch housewives often made sure that laundry was hung out to dry in a particular pattern: something orange, something red, something white, and something blue…

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