At midnight on New Year’s Eve, the Dutch take to the streets in their thousands to welcome in the New Year by setting off fireworks. The resulting spectacle can be breathtaking but it’s a tradition with an increasingly sinister edge.
The market is being flooded with illegal fireworks, many packing excessive firepower and posing a danger to humans, animals and the environment. Opponents of these excesses are keen to see a ban on consumer fireworks. Will the Netherlands’ explosive start to the New Year soon be a thing of the past?
Bringing in the New Year with a bang is every bit as Dutch as cheese, clogs and windmills. As far back as the Middle Ages, royalty and nobility would liven up their feasts and celebrations with flashes of colour and fire. Across the world, the tradition of creating loud explosions to drive out evil spirits has been around since ancient times.
“The economy took a turn for the better and people could afford fireworks for themselves. There were only bangers and firecrackers to start with, mainly produced in the Netherlands. It wasn’t all “made in China” in those days.”
Deep-rooted tradition
New Year’s fireworks being set off by private individuals is not an exclusively Dutch phenomenon. Within Europe, the tradition extends to Germany, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. But nowhere does it occur on the same massive scale as in the Netherlands.
“The Dutch set off the most fireworks per head of population. We may well have the most deep-rooted tradition. It’s impossible to imagine life without it.”
Outside Europe too, fireworks and New Year’s celebrations are synonymous – in China, Indonesia and Latin America for example. English-speaking countries also have a traditional bond with fireworks, but not one that is specifically associated with New Year. By and large, the same is true of the Middle East and North Africa.
Damage and death
But now there are nagging doubts about how long that Dutch tradition will be allowed to continue. Pressure from opponents is mounting. Fireworks cause environmental damage, generate noise nuisance for humans and animals, inflict an increasing amount of material damage and can lead to very serious accidents. In the early hours of the New Year, hospitals are overrun with patients suffering from eye injuries or severely injured limbs. Fireworks can even cause fatalities. Last year, two young people died in fireworks accidents. And that statistic is by no means unique.
All of these unwanted side effects are fuelling calls for a ban on fireworks in the Netherlands, says Cees Meijer, coordinator of a task force dedicated to tracking down the makers of firework bombs. The force is a joint initiative by the Public Prosecutions Service, the police and the Dutch consumer safety association.
“Tolerance of the fireworks tradition is a lot less widespread than it used to be. That’s mainly due to all those firework bombs and highly dangerous hand grenades that find their way into the country outside the legally sanctioned period for setting off fireworks. We therefore believe that public opinion is changing.”
Messing with tradition
The accusing finger is pointing at the black market. Abroad, sometimes just over the border in Belgium and Germany, people can purchase fireworks which are far more powerful than anything legally permissible in the Netherlands. And online, consumers can buy whatever they want in countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic, where increasingly powerful and more dangerous material is on offer.
In 2009, ordinary citizens took action in the hope of forcing the authorities to institute a ban on consumer fireworks. A petition collected 65,000 signatures, but MPs decided not to act on the initiative. Three years later, the government confirmed that it was not about to mess with tradition.
Loud bangs
Politicians may not yet be ready to implement a ban on fireworks, but Cees Meijer still believes it’s a good idea to look at the alternatives.
“Local authorities could organise their own firework displays. It’s something the general public may end up actually preferring. Most people love the visual spectacle of fireworks but hate the loud bangs. There needs to be a survey of public opinion. Three years ago, twelve per cent of the Dutch population were against people setting off their own fireworks at New Year. We have since received clear signs, not least from worried parents and doctors, that this figure is now likely to be higher. If we get our way, there will be a new survey in 2012.”
But even if a majority of the general population were in favour of a ban on fireworks, it would still be years before it came into force. To say nothing of the issue of enforcement.
“You cannot simply make a tradition that has been in place since the end of World War II disappear over a few years. If a ban on consumer fireworks were to be implemented, it could only be done over something like a ten-year period.”
(dd/tt)
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I feel hostage in my house. Gangs of teenage boys are roaming around with fireworks that really are bombs, not what we've heard in previous years, and no families setting the things off with their kids. When they set them off near here, our windows rattle as though they will crack. The mailbo has been screwed shut. I hate this. It is just pure, antisocial behaviour, and I will be glad when it's over.
I just went for a quick shop at my local supermarket with my brother and 5 year old niece. A group of 10 teenage boys were quite blatently setting off illegal fireworks outside. Despite requests from shoppers and the supermarket owner they would not stop and were in fact terribly rude to everyone. These idiot kids didn't care at all about their local community. No amount of ad campaigns or education can change their behaviour, only possible a terrible accident may.
I am all for a ban and for fireworks to be organised for the public so that young and old an enjoy it properly. I attended a wonderful fireworks display for Guy Fawkes night this year in Yorkshire, safe and beautiful. Traditions sometimes too need to evolve.
Hope the Dutch celebrate their new year in style and safely. We have centuries old tradition of fireworks on Diwali- but over the years more and more people are avoiding it or have reduced the amount of crackers...Personally, we have avoided it for nearly a decade- we save money going up in fumes, and save the environment too...
12 Percent of the population were against fireworks, ok get back to me when 100% are or at LEAST around 75% to change a strong tradition like this, if they are importing fireworks from country's they are not suppose to what kind of lazy person just suggests banning it instead of getting to the REAL problem instead?
Are you Dutch crazy??? From the video clip on this news item, it looks as if some serious injuries could have been inflicted on children and others.
As if the USA were sane, however! Some states and jurisdictions prohibit individual fireworks and schedule shows especially on July 4th while many other states still permit this chaos. I once lived in a city of 150,000 in California which allowed private fireworks displays until some teen agers set off a major explosion and burned down a prominent citizen's home. That city promptly banned fireworks. What's that about barn doors and stolen horses???
Oh good....an American is telling the Dutch how to live.....that's a great one.
Go ahead, eliminate New Years....you have eliminated everything else fun about Amsterdam.
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