Kingdom Day in 2024

When is Kingdom Day?

Kingdom Day is a non-working day in the Dutch municipality of Bonaire on December 15th each year.

The holiday commemorates the anniversary of Queen Juliana signing the Charter for the Kingdom of Netherlands in 1954.

History of Kingdom Day

The Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands is a legal instrument that sets out the political relationship between the four countries that constitute the Kingdom of the Netherlands: Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten in the Caribbean and the Netherlands. It is the leading legal document of the Kingdom. The Constitution of the Netherlands and the Basic Laws of the three other countries are legally subordinate to the Charter.

The first version of the Charter, which described the relationship between the Netherlands, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles, was signed by Queen Juliana on December 15th 1954. This version lasted for a couple of decades until November 25th 1975, when Suriname became an independent republic.

Bonaire was part of the Netherlands Antilles until the country's dissolution in 2010 when the island became a special municipality (officially, a "Caribbean public body") within the country of the Netherlands. It is one of three special municipalities in the Caribbean; the others are Sint Eustatius and Saba, and all three are known as the Caribbean Netherlands.

Kingdom Day became a new public holiday in the Netherlands Antilles in 2008, replacing Antilles' Day (October 21st).

After the split of the Netherlands Antilles, Curaçao announced that KIngdom Day would no longer be a public holiday in Curaçao.