When the Dutch public take a holiday, they do it in style.

The last week has seen not one but two, rather rare things in the Netherlands – public holidays. In South Africa there are quite a few so it is quite easy to become blasé about them, perhaps doing a bit of pottering in the garden, drinking about more than usual the night before on what is usually “a school night”.

The Dutch, however, don’t have quite so many so, when they do come along, they are done in style -albeit a rather quirky, orange-tinted one.

The fact that Koninginnedag isn’t actually on the queen’s birthday is just one of the many, slightly strange things about this holiday.

But, it is probably the easiest to explain. After all, if you can’t move your birthday to when it is most convenient for you and your subjects, what is the point of being the Queen in the first place? It is in fact the day of the Queen Mother’s birthday - the Queen generously decided to move hers to a slightly warmer part of the year.

The next thing you need to know about Koninginnedag is that it takes place – at least for most people – in two parts. Part one begins as soon as it is socially acceptable to start drinking the day before the actual holiday, and begins in earnest when the restaurants have finished stocking all the extra beer and donned their orange outfits.

This party lasts well into the actual holiday punctuated by bands, general merriment and as much orange-coloured paraphernalia as is physically possible.

Koninginnedag itself begins a little like a teen zombie movie, with unhealthily pale people wandering around the city looking decidedly worse for wear and trying to figure out where they left their bikes.

Juxtaposed to these almost-dead, orange revelers, are the bright faces of children who line the streets from about 9 am in the morning trying to convince people to buy all sorts of barely useful secondhand merchandise.

Browsing through the market, we saw everything from well-thumbed copies of Barbie teaches swimming to cassette tape copies of ABBA; ancient computer monitors and printers to stuffed animals. Of course, where there is a possibility of making a quick buck by getting rid of some of the stuff that takes up valuable space that could be used for newer, shinier junk, adults get in on the act too, selling all sorts of things from old fashioned hot chocolate makers to boxes of second hand porn magazines.

From around midday most of the shops are opened and all sorts of goods can be bought, even Hema got cashed in selling a special Koninginnedag dessert decorated with radioactive orange icing. A voice in the store proclaiming loudly that Koninginnedag just would not be the same without the orange-topped concoction.

Bevrijdingsdag, the second public holiday, celebrates the end of the Second World War. Which, while an enormously worthy celebration, is one that flies a little over the heads, I would hazard to guess, of most of the people who attended the music festival in its honour.

Most of the people were way too young to have fought in the war, many too young to have had parents who had defended their nation during the War and, I couldn’t help thinking that, that in itself was cause for celebration.

I don’t think any of us revel in our freedom nearly enough. I know I don’t wake up in the morning and take the time to marvel at the fact that should I wish to speak my mind I can, that I can and have got an education, that I can choose to sleep with whomever I want. Usually I am to busy getting on with my day working and living.

I just hope that at least some of the people happily dancing to the music at a festival put on for them, for which they didn’t have to pay, took a little bit more time that morning to savour the moment and realize just how lucky they are to have this public holiday.