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The fireworks started shortly after noon, and continued until about 1am. I am referring to the 'continuous' fireworks, or those where the next bang is less than 30 seconds or so after the previous. The time around midnight was the heaviest, of course, and when we went outside, the sky was red. I kid you not. I really thought, 'Can that actually be from the fireworks, or is this an alien invasion?'. Three red dots hovered above us for what seemed like more than a few seconds - they could have been spaceships... but then they exploded.
The street outside our house was crowded full of people, all of whom had their own personal explosives. I thought Americans were the only people stupid enough to mix megatons of black powder with alcohol, but I was so wrong! At one point, a neighbor came by to say 'hello'. He had his hands full with a mat of firecrackers. He dropped about 8 of them on the street, but he didn't notice. A couple of minutes later, one of our guests for the evening lit off some little ground-crawling type fireworks a few feet away... I wondered how many other live explosives were laying around waiting to surprise someone. The angle of inclination for the rockets seemed to get smaller and smaller as the explosives frenzy built up to a climax where rockets, firecrackers and various weapons of mass destruction were launched by nearly everyone over the age of three.
I ordered the children inside when it seemed to get 'too crazy' (i.e. I was terrified, and they were frightened enough to be relieved to be sent indoors).
One thing I wondered, 'How much does all this cost?'. I found the following:
"Germans usually spend over €100 million on fireworks in the three days leading up to the New Year. Although there are no statistics on how much of this cash is unemployment benefit, two Berlin politicians decided to give those on welfare some end-of-year advice.
"Unemployment benefit, which is paid by the state, should not be blown on rockets and bangers," Cornelia Seibeld of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) told Berlin newspaper B.Z..
This came in reaction to reports from shopkeepers that some welfare recipients were spending up to €150 on fireworks, nearly half of the monthly Hartz IV payment of €359."
Wow.
Janice.
ReplyDeleteHappy new year to all of you. I am glad you survived also the second onslaught onto your health. As a boy New Years eve was the greatest fun with all those explosives. Imagine my disappointment in NC where it is easier to get a semi-automatic than decent fire works, hence lots to hear and not much to see on New Years eve.
The skies will clear in April. Life at the coast can be grey, I hear this a lot from Melissa's brother in Seattle. For some fun in between Holstein Kiel will play the quarter final in the football cup, a pure sensation because Kiel is in fourth league. Match time is at the beginning of February. I am sure your boys would be excited, at least the young ones.
Andreas