Arriving on a Friday evening in Amsterdam it was still bright outside to experience the city for a couple hours before it became night. Walking out of the train station, I attempted to take in as much as possible. Feeling like a lost puppy, not knowing where to go, I immediately began to notice my surroundings. The sounds of passing bikes and the buses, the smell of the city, and the plethora of buildings that stood before me.
Walking from the train station to my hostel I saw many interesting buildings. Some were churches others were town homes. Though, many of them were different from each other, one thing they had in common was a hint of the color orange somewhere on the outside of the house. Whether it was as small as the blinds or shades or the paint of the house, most of the buildings had an accent of bright orange. This made me more curious every street I walked down because to me it made no sense.
After arriving at my hostel I sought out to explore the city. Walking on the streets of Amsterdam I looked into several souvenirs shops and realized that many of the shirts were bright orange too. I also noticed that one of the Netherlands soccer jersey's was orange, which confused me because the colors on the national flag are red, white, and blue.
The more I walked around the city the more I began to notice the color in every place I went, from the coffee shops off the red-light district to the shopping mall outside of the center. Also, a lot of the bars had the color in the form of a flag or a jersey. Therefore I assumed that it could possibly be apart of the local soccer team of Amsterdam.
After ignoring my curiosity I decided to ask one of the locals what orange symbolized to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Initially I was hesitant to ask because I did not know how he or she would react. Luckily, he was enthusiastic by my curiosity he explained, that the color orange represented the color of the Dutch royal family. Upon further research I discovered that the lineage of the royal family, the House of Oranje-Nassau, dates back to William Van Orange.
The Dutch are famous for wearing the color orange at their soccer games too. If you are watching the World Cup make sure to notice the large amount of orange present at their games.
Even thought the color orange represents the royal family of the Netherlands, today it symbolizes a broader pride in the country and being Dutch. I think that this is very special because rarely does a color, not on the national flag, represent a nation. This also shows the respect the people of Netherlands have for the royal family.
I eventually asked more locals about their customs and was surprised how friendly they were to Americans, only because of the stories I’ve heard from other Americans who have traveled throughout Europe.
Orange is huge in the Netherlands. My roommate in Oxford was actually born there. Around once a year, his parents get him some type of sports memorabilia with the Netherlands colors and logo. These include a baseball cap from their national team and their soccer jersey for the world cup. Its very interesting how a whole country can be represented by just one color. Definitely a common symbol that identifies their collective culture as a nation and the pride they have.
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