The firework love of the Dutch
It hasn't been quiet in the Netherlands on 31 December. Even the Germans loved noise during the New Year. They were yawning, sang. And for centuries before the introduction of firecrackers and flares, the blast of thunderbushes and table cannon sounded in the Netherlands. Fireworks would only be used later to usher in the New Year. Because after it came from China to the west in the thirteenth century, fireworks were mainly ignited during royal or imperial visits. The ordinary citizen couldn't afford it yet.
Only in the nineteenth century became fireworks of everyone. “Money to eat may not be available, but money for fireworks is abundant,” said an OVT radio reporter in 1933 during a report of 'Hartjesdag', a costume party in Amsterdam that fell into oblivion. Fireworks only became more popular after that, especially after the 1960s cheap fireworks entered the Netherlands. More fireworks also meant more injury, but that was also something that came with it.
Where does the tradition of fireworks come from?
Already the Germanes loved noise during the New Year. “The transition from Old to New Year is the oldest tradition in the Netherlands,” says ethnologist Peter Jan Margry. “Fireworks is one of the few traditions that can be traced back to Germanic culture.” The festivities, which, according to tradition, lasted thirteen days and came out of joy at the weather of the days, are known as the Joel Feast, and it must have been unfair. “Numerous sacrifices were then slaughtered, and with each sacrifice a meal was made, and every drink was drunk, and every drink aroused new cheerfulness,” writes the nineteenth century historian Jan Ter Gouw in 1871 in his book De Volksververmaien.
The noisy celebration of the New Year is a hard to eradicate rite de passage; history is rich in prohibitions that have done little. “Making noise during New Year's Eve is traditionally meant to mark an uncertain transition auditory and thereby facilitate,” says cultural historian Gerard Rooijakkers. “Centuries before the introduction of consumer fireworks, guns, thunderbushes and table cannons were fired in the Netherlands. Especially on the first day of the New Year, many shots were fired in front of the house of the nobility or from other authority bearers. They gave a tip.The irony is that, where behaviour during the New Year mainly wants to undermine the authority, the blast was then a tribute to the authority.”
The departure of fireworks during the turn of the year took flight in the Netherlands only after the Second World War, mainly because of the migration of Indian Dutch people. They had a lot of experience with fireworks, which in the East was mainly fired by Chinese. There, too, the disadvantages were known; a ban in India reported in December 1926. Not only is the blast a “questionable degeneration of the previously innocent fireworks pleasure”, it can also be used to carry out bombings.
