The oliebollen and champagne do not change, but this New Year’s Eve is also celebrated ‘different than usual’. This is evident from the many responses we received to the question: how will you spend New Year’s Eve this year?
The lockdown and the national fireworks ban put an end to the massive bang party. Most people therefore spend the New Year’s Eve in a small committee, just like last year. For example, Jan and Roelie van den Berg are celebrating the party at home this year, with their cats. “You can’t risk having visitors in this crazy time,” they write. Ria Grootoonk also normally celebrates New Year’s Eve with many friends and family. But now that corona makes this impossible again, she is going to walk the Pieterpad with a friend as an alternative.
Yet there are also people who traditionally ring in the year with a large group of friends and continue that tradition. Gerard Geluk comes from Rotterdam and goes to a farm in Friesland with twenty friends for a barbecue at night. “Lands of meat with oliebollen and champagne. That goes well with music. I am a DJ and I play records on vinyl. There is dancing and everything is in horse stables and outside, with a fire. Very cosy,” says Geluk. “We don’t hug and kiss because of corona, and everything is outside so that’s fine.”
Günther de Vries also celebrates the New Year outdoors with friends. “We celebrate New Year’s Eve with about fifty people at a holiday park in Doorn. We have been doing this for about sixty years; it is a real tradition. We will probably celebrate the party outside, just like last year,” he writes. .
Sylvana Uittenbogaard and her friends Diana van der Vlist and Kimberly Simons from The Hague are trying to bring the neighborhood together this year. All neighbors have received a note in the mail with an invitation for a drink and an oliebol at her door. “All corona-proof,” she says. “In this way we can bring back the solidarity and toast to the new year. That used to be the case here, and that has faded over time. We have already received many positive reactions to the initiative. For example, from an old neighbor who has already lives in the street all his life. He said, how nice that they thought of me.”
Popping with the milk can
Although fireworks are banned this year, popping carbide is allowed in some municipalities. This is a tradition around the turn of the year, especially in the east and north of the country. The milk churns blast louder than any fireworks and are often lit by groups of friends, such as the group of friends of Sil van ‘t Veen (16) from Kampen. “Here in Kampen you have to register for a shooting spot. The municipality has fifty of these, and that way they can regulate it. Every place has a contact person, so it’s all very safe.”
Sil just meets up with his friends of 15 and 16 years old, despite corona. “It’s all outside, so that will go well. And I honestly think that few people my age are very concerned about corona.”
He expects that the fireworks ban will increase the popularity of the age-old tradition. “This is the alternative then.”
Also last year carbide was especially popular because of the fireworks ban. Then this fireworks dealer from The Hague was introduced to carbide shooting for the first time; he was quite impressed by it:
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