A Colourful World

Unlike many cities in the world, there are no organised New Year’s fireworks displays in towns and cities in the Netherlands. Instead, there is an annual frenzy of fireworks purchasing for the three days leading in to New Years Eve. Then in one wild and crazy night, this country comes alive to the colour and sound of exploding celebration.

We spent NYE in Zaandam (a town just north of Amsterdam) with our friend Kate and her family. Kate reckons that 70 million euros was spent on fireworks in the Netherlands this year; a number that is just hard to fathom.

Theoretically you can only let the fireworks off from 10pm on NYE, although in reality they have actually been trickling out for a few days now. But there is no comparison to what starts at midnight. At that point you can begin to believe the 70 million figure, as thousands of high quality fireworks start - and continue for the next two hours!

Sydney, London and Paris may have the big shows, but they only last for 15 minutes. A couple of hours of crazy Dutch celebrations beats that any day! And it is a very friendly sort of thing, with lots of families and a festive atmosphere.

Something else we really enjoy here is that big public events here don’t feature the alcohol fuelled aggression you find in other places. It makes for a very different feel, making it a celebration rather than a place to be worrying about your personal security.

Anyway, we came home this morning (the trains stopped running at 8pm last night, which was not only quaint, but meant that getting home was not an option), to find that there had obviously been quite a party in our street as well. The place is littered with the tell-tale red paper left behind by the big fireworks.

And hence the photo – this remnant was left outside our house on the street (with plenty of that red paper…). This has to be the biggest firework I have ever seen! A Colourful World indeed!

Shane