New Years Eve in the UK and the USA is generally parties with friends, some firework displays (new in my life time), the electrifying moment of "watching a glass ball slide down a pole" in New York, and a rousing chorus of Auld Lang Syne. The London firework display has attracted thousands since the Millenium and this year a quarter of a million people congregated to experience the multi-sensory firework show with edible snow & confetti! When we lived in Boston, USA, we were keen participators of "First Night", the celebrations held in the city since 1976. A family affair for all ages with concerts, dancing, iceskating, ice sculptures, parades and fireworks. We first experienced this at the Millennium and I have fond memories of watching the world celebrate on the big screen on Boston Common with our young children. I also have not so fond memories of one bitterly cold First Night, when we literally could not feel our feet after a time!
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| London |
In Spain a grape is eaten for each clock chime at midnight, whilst wearing red underwear and grossly, in Russia, your wish is written on paper, burned, placed in your champagne and drunk! I guess many Russians are to be seen choking at midnight!
The Dutch New Year is based, it would seem, upon getting as close as possible to maiming or death! They celebrate New Years loudly & all day! From breakfast onwards the children (and I use that term loosely as teenagers seem to enjoy it too!) seem to get endless pleasure from throwing firecrackers into the street and into buckets! In my experience un-patrolled firework lighting always ends in tears somewhere. (My cats hid under the furniture rolling their eyes in derision most of the day and are now in therapy!) There are few organized "safe" firework displays, just the delights of family fireworks and local children continuing to throw firecrackers and fireworks....in our case at the car as we drove home, causing my husband to almost veer off the road, making me feel rather like an embedded war correspondent (I had had a few glasses of champagne at this point!). Then there is always the bizarre New Years Eve ritual in some towns, where the local youths set a car on fire....ostensibly an old car! Not sure of the deeper meaning of that tradition, worship of the pagan god DAF maybe, but everyone is surprised when the police & firetrucks get involved. What party-poopers! Another way to brush with death or dismemberment is that, bizarrely, public transport shuts down from 8pm until the following morning...in other countries public transport is free, to encourage people not to drive on the evening that many over-imbibe! To round off the taunting of death you then eat artery hardening "oliebollen" a delicious, when fresh, dough ball that is deep fried and coated in powdered sugar. Happy New Year!
Staggeringly, in the Netherlands, the number of injuries were high....a man died after his fireworks exploded, 46 people were treated for serious eye injuries and eight people actually lost an eye due to firework injuries. Numerous cars destroyed, fire emergencies and arrests rounded off a good celebration it would seem!
So, celebrations can be fun, life-threatening or just plain silly but at the end of the day we all close the old year and start a new one with hopes, wishes and dreams of a better, healthier, happier twelve months.....hopefully with both eyes!
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| Amsterdam |
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