One of the main holidays in Holland is
Queens day (click
for description and pictures).
Bevrijdingsdag (5. May)is the holiday to celebrate when the Dutch were freed from the Germans after World War II. They have a big parade and festival at the Dam in Amsterdam.
The day before (4. May) is Herdenkingsdag, which commemorates the people who died serving their country. At eight o'clock in the evening the whole country takes two minutes of silence. Then, in Amsterdam, they sing the national anthem and the flag goes from half mast to full mast very slowly. They also put out wreaths to commemorate the different kinds of workers (eg, one for those who died in the army, in the concentration camps, etc.) In the train station I even noticed they had a wreath for all the workers who had died in train crashes.
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