In the afternoon on New Year's Eve, my host father, little host brother, and I headed out to purchase some fireworks to set off that night. I could hardly believe we were legally purchasing some firecrackers for personal use! Doing so is illegal where I grew up. Our destination was a flower shop that had been converted to a full-on, fully-stocked firecracker outlet for the day. While we were shopping at about 2 p.m., we already were hearing firecrackers here and there go off in the streets. Some street corners were already hazy with smoke from firecrackers! It was a sign of even more exciting things to come. It was then that I started to realize just how much Germans LOVE firecrackers on New Year's.
By 10 p.m., fireworks were regularly going off in our usually quiet neighborhood that is primarily populated by families and old people. The noise and smoke outside steadily increased, and we headed out to join the fun and set off our own mini explosives. And when midnight hit, all hell broke loose.
It was nuts! Fireworks were everywhere and the celebration went on for hours. The scene got so chaotic right at midnight that I knew I had to take a film:
You'll probably want to skip around and see the highlights:
2:35 - A neighbor's firework rocket fails, falls back towards the earth, and explodes nearby right at eye level
3:25 - My host brother lights what turns out to be an extremely explosive firework directly at my feet. I flee, but not before getting hit in the face
6:00 - I struggle to light a small rocket of our own
11:50 - Our neighbors get better at firing rockets and stage a big finale
14:20 - Other neighbors down the street, not to be outdone, have an even bigger finale
Keep in mind that we could hear even bigger explosions on neighboring streets, and that this neighborhood is relatively peaceful for Berlin! Some areas of the city I wouldn't dare enter on New Year's Eve, as the amount of reckless firework launching virtually guarantees at least a minor injury.
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| My little host brother lighting his own firecracker |
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| Smoke hangs in the air and fireworks still go off 30 minutes into 2015 |
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| One of our contributions to the din |
Remember how the Germans strive to be as environmentally friendly as humanly possible? Yeah, that all goes out the window one time a year as they ignite their precious firecrackers and leave the debris behind for city services to clean up in the morning. But hey, we all have to let loose sometimes, right? Happy 2015!