New Years Eve Fireworks

New Years Eve is really a big event here. Starting at about 10 A.M. You can hear loud bangs. The folks put Carbide and water in large milk cans and replace the lid, then wait for the pressure to build up and someone lights a fuse that goes to a small hole in the bottom of the can which then blows off the lid. Usually the lid is attached to a rope so it does not take off and land on someones roof. The fun part for them is to set off several cans one right after the other. We could hear explosions all day and when it started getting dark the firework show started. It went on ALL evening and it did not stop until about 2 A.M. It was amazing to see the whole sky really light up for about an hour near midnight when all of Leeuwarden fires off huge fireworks. We could see miles away from our high rise apartment and the colorful bursts covered the whole horizon. We could also see a large bond fire down below where our neighbors lit a pile of Christmas trees in the middle of the street. The fire lit up the whole neighborhood.
What we saw were not organized events but individuals celebrating New Years. One of our neighbors saw us on our front porch and hurried and came over to shake hands and wish us a Happy New Year. Our kids used to laugh when grandpa would go around the room and congratulate everyone there if someone had a birthday but they did not realize that it is actually a Dutch tradition to congratulate everyone in the room. Close friends and relatives get a three cheek kiss. The French do a two cheek kiss and the Belgians just one. (And they wonder why there are so many cases of the Flu walking around?) We are greeted the same way when we go to church.

The video only shows a few seconds of what went on for HOURS. It was a fantastic show and the video does not do it justice.