The change of years is accompanied by many
traditions.
Ofcourse there are national, regional and
local traditions.
On the national/regional
level:
Each year people take a "new years dive"
into the North Sea at Scheveningen.
Last year, for
the first time, the same was done in the lakes in the
east of the country.
In the north of the country
there's a group that steals an important object, and
show it off at January 1st.
Last year it was the
"Neeltje Jacoba". It's a famour rescue boat, that came
into the news that year because of some national affair.
The
goal of the theft was to bring into people's mind that
with this boat hundreds of lives were saved at
sea.
We didn't have a national new years
festivity that appealed to the phantasies of other
nations untill last year. A gathering was held in
Amsterdam, and it's supposed to be the start of a long
lasting tradition.
Apart from this all, we
have our firworks and we eat "oliebollen", balls of
dough, with or without raisins, fried in oil.
I
prefer "appelbeignets", an applemixture in dough, fried
in oil.
Most of us spend "old years eve", the
evening of december 31, at home.
A tradition is that
we watch the "old years conference" on TV, a light
satirical cabaret-ish show. It's a review of the past
year, and when political or other famous people aren't
mentioned, they're considered not to be
important.
"Old year's day" at our house
means cleaning in the morning for me and doing groceries
for Jim.
In the afternoon the kids can use the
kitchen.
It started out some years ago with Stef
baking a cake. Now they make all kinds of dishes. Cakes,
one-person-applepies, sticks with a saucage, ananas,
etc., pieces of cheese with flags, and a lot
more.
An hour before the shops close, Jim and I
go to the shopping centre, and pay a quick visit to the
shops where we usually get our things. One of the goals
is to get something really nice to eat from the sales.
Often fish, or some special dish that we never buy
because it's too expensive, but with 50% or more off the
prize, we buy now.
Ofcourse we wish everybody a
"happy new year".
At home
we have a light dinner. The kids have eaten enough when
preparing the special dishes, and otherwise there's
enough to snatch within the hour..LOL!
After that
we clean the kitchen and dress up a bit.
Coffee and
TV, a few phonecalls.....
The youngest kids go to
bed for a few hours.
Near the end of the evening
I tend to feel a bit lonely, thinking about the people
that died, and all kind of events that happened last
year.
Then I wake up the little kids and we switch on
the TV on one of our national senders, the one
with the clock.
Near 12 hour we get glasses ready
with something to drink.
At 12 we wish each other
"happy new year" and toast to the new year.
After
that we switch off the lights and watch the
fireworks.
I always celebrate new year too with
the BBC in honor of my english friends.
After
that everybody goes to bed...... and I pay a few visits
on internet to wish some of my best friends a happy New
Year!
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