Why do Dutch people love the color orange so much?

Siddarth Chunduri is a first-year Master student of Embedded Systems coming from Pondicherry, India. As soon as he found out that he was going to study in the Netherlands he began to follow the Dutch team’s performance during the World Cup matches. “Everything was orange. The players, the streets, the supporters. I wondered then: why are the Dutch so fond of the color orange?”

Orange is indeed the national color of the Netherlands. Except during football matches you also see whole cities colored orange on the Queen’s Birthday. The preference for the color orange in the Netherlands originates from the French city of Orange. William I, pater patriae (1533-1584), inherited the princedom of Orange from his nephew, as well as the accompanying prestigious title of prince of Orange. The title prince of Orange has been passed on, and today’s prince of Orange is prince Willem-Alexander, son of Queen Beatrix and future King of the Netherlands. The royal house of the Netherlands is called the house of Orange-Nassau.

The phenomenon ‘orange madness’ began during the 1974 World Cup, when orange-clad fans followed the national team. Ever since December 1907 the Dutch football team has played in orange shirts.