Orange-Nassau

On 30 April and days when the Dutch football team play another country, people often decorate their houses with orange balloons, streamers and flags. They wear orange clothes and sometimes even paint their faces orange. The reason for all this orange has to do with the Queen’s surname: Orange-Nassau.

Orange is the name of a town in France. A very long time ago Orange was ruled by some of the Queen’s distant ancestors, the Princes of Orange. To this day, the Dutch king or queen’s oldest son is given the title “Prince of Orange”. Of course this doesn’t mean that Prince Willem-Alexander is in charge in Orange. It’s just a title.

The other part of the Queen’s surname, Nassau, comes from a place in Germany, which used to be ruled by some of the Queen’s ancestors, the Counts of Nassau.