New Year madness

In NL as in many other countries its the tradtion to let of fireworks at new Years.
Offically they are only sold on 29 30 and 31st dec although because a Sunday fall into those days this year they were allowed to start selling them on Friday. The law says you must be 16 for light fireworks and 18 for the more powerful kind and they may only be let off on dec31 between 6pm and 2am on Jan 1st.

Of course no one keeps to the rules. Its amazing, the Dutch who are so calm about everything and so boring that their birthday parties are duller than most funerals suddenly become mad pyromaniacs throwing mini bombs all over the place and not just teenagers or kids, the parents join in as well. The teenagers all wander about with great big shopping bags full of explosives and set them off anywhere they please, its a nightmare.

It never used to be like this but over the years its just become more and more aggressive its like a week of total lunacy takes over them and I will admit to being affected by it. Remy was so shell shocked that he would refuse to walk and just wet himself when it all got too much or when there was a huge bang. Murphy just barks if they get too close but last night when we walked some kids cycled twards us and started lobbing big bangers into the road then he got worried and started really struggeling to get home. I have phoned the council and the police but they are not that interested until someone actually blows a hand off.

Anyway from today I will be taking Murphy out every eveing, driving down to the industrial estate and walking along the verges past the factories and businesses who are all closed up for the weekend. I'll be doing that at 10pm in the dark on my own while OH sits with Basil making sure he isnt flying into the bars of his cage in fright.
This isnt normal..
The upshot of it is I HATE new year I become a seething raging fury driven monster ready to rip a new a-hole for anyone who comes near with a firework . I dont like myself at this time but I hate the firework flingers less.

Just a heads up in case you wonder why I wont be saying happy new year.

My two eldest grandchildren are going to their dad in Amsterdam this year. They have been told many times about the fireworks and are looking forward to them. Luckily no animals with them or their dad

@Nanny71 I hope they have a good time. I dont know if there are organised shows in Adam there arent any here. And they must eat their own weight in oliebollen Dutch people love them!

Thank you for your reply. Grandson goes back and forth to his dad quite often. First time granddaughter has been without us.
They are 21 and 23 respectively, so I am sure they will have a great time.

Yep, I'm not looking forward to the fireworks either, Jimmy hates it and will end up sleeping with us. I hope they ban them in the UK so they're only available to professional display organisers.

NL isn't alone with this issue - I read an article earlier this morning that Berlin is so bad that the air quality plummets during this time and the smog can be seen from space. Typically I can't find the article now although I thought it was on the BBC.

@arealhuman is it this one? Germany's New Years Eve fireworks ruining air quality | DW | 29.12.2018

Ive also seen a list of German cities who are banning the use of firewroks altogether. I can only hope for that day. It wouldnt be so bad if it was just for the time allowed but it goes on for days before and days after. OH is a lung patient and if the air is smoggy the dust hangs around meaning he is a virtual prisoner because if we go out in it he coughs until he bleeds.

The fireworks start here in November and go off most weekends until 5th jan ....?????xmas day at 5pm some idiots let off the loudest rockets i have heard ....i have been campaigning for 15 yrs now to ban fireworks for public sale and only allow proper set up displays like it used to be when i was a kid

I'm 53 and fireworks have always been on sale to the general public. The big difference between then and now is that they wouldn't sell them to you unless you were old enough. So back then it was the parents that bought the vast majority of fireworks and keep then until bonfire night. As for the new year,that didn't happen until it was the year 2000. Since then all hell seems to break loose for fifteen minutes around here.

Back when I were a lass, young people wouldn't have had the money to buy a load of fireworks anyway. As you listen to the bangs, just think of the amount of money going up in smoke. Aren't there cheaper ways to have fun nowadays?

MM, and others in a similar position - I'm so sorry you have to put up with this And I hate the attitude of others who think they are entitled to do whatever they want and couldn't give a toss about their impact on other people and animals

I think as well when I was growing up my parents put the fear of god in me and my brother that whole thing of playing with, throwing or generally just messing around with fireworks had life changing consequences(to put it mildly!), as well as the ads on the tv with the boy and the ginger cat? Sadly today the thought of parents even trying to encourage their offspring to be aware of consequences and other people/animals, seems to be gone or am I just getting more cynical/intolerant of other people??

Flobo said:

the ads on the tv with the boy and the ginger cat?

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Oh yes, Charley says...! There was another advert with 'real people' at a fireworks do... I don't think it showed anything graphic but it still made an impression on me. I'm sure most youngsters are considerate, well behaved and well brought up, but of course we tend to notice the ones that aren't. But it's shocking that their parents can often be as bad.

I totally agree with @JudyN, not all young people are bad,but boy do the bad ones make up for it. They take it all to new levels, if fireworks were banned tomorrow I'd be a happy man. If they aren't getting banned because people are using them to attack the police, firecrews and ambulance crews then there's no chance of getting them banned to protect pets. A sad state of affairs.

Not wanting to sound like a grumpy old woman but it used to be much more civilised. My dad was a caretaker on our council estate. He would confiscate fireworks before Nov 5th but tell the kids that if mum or dad came to the house and asked for them back he would return them and apologise. He would store the fireworks in an old army ammo box.. Nobody ever came to the house.. Just imagine the scenes nowdays if someone dared confiscate juniors fireworks!

When we arrived in NL in 1990 we were told there would be fireworks at new year and so we bought a pack for the children, but the evening wore on without any sign of fireworks and the kids were tired so at about 9pm we let off our little box of roman candles and such in the garden.Then the children went to bed .Imagine our surprise as the clock struck 12 and the streets filled with people sharing oliebollen and drinks and letting fireworks off on the communal green (while all the mums and children stayed at a safe distance). It was lovely, by 1am it was all over and after shaking hands and exchanging new years greetings everyone returned to their houses and went to bed.
Fast forward to 2018 and for the past 3 nights riot police have been on the streets in several cities, in Groningen they have been showered with firework bombs and the police van had its windows blown in. Here one woman has been arrested after police found 140 kilos of illegal powerful fireworks in her shed and two 17 yr olds were arrested in the local park after they were found with 40 nitrate bombs (illegal bangers).

Another bug bear of mine is the wording used when these idiots get hurt, 'firework victims', Im sorry but if they are under age and letting off fireworks outside the permitted hours or letting off illegal fireworks they are not victims they are firework criminals. Yesterday a 14 year old boy mucking about with legal fireworks which he shouldnt have had or been letting off had part of his hand blown off when the firework he was holding exploded before he could throw it ! Last year one man died when the illegal firework he bought from Poland exploded before he could move away..I dont think he is a victim of anything but his own stupidity however his wife and children who witnessed him having half his head blown off are.

Im not sure what it will take to end the madness but I hope it comes soon.

I'm dreading it here as well, they'll be setting them off all night. I think it's time they only let people buy them at certain times and set them off at certain times not November till January. My son hates them as well they scare him.

Happy new year?
Well so far in NL (its 2am) there have been riots in two cities at least. several cars have been burned out as well as several properties, several police officers are injured, some children are in hospital after a motar bomb was thrown into their house and three people are dead from firework injuries. The offical figures for injuries , loss of fingers eyesight , property damage etc wont be known for several days yet so it can only get worse.

Forgive me if Im not jumping for joy..

How was Murphy?

Hope all your dogs coped with the fireworks. I am staying with my sister on their farm .Very isolated. Watched fireworks on TV. London and Edinburgh. Very impressive and apparently paid for by the British taxpayer don't believe I was asked if I wanted my money to go up in smoke

JudyN said:

How was Murphy?

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He was ok .. At midnight when the worst of it went up I used the game with the loo roll tubes in a big washingup bowl to take his mind off things (he likes to hunt treats) before that we took turns to drive out of town and walk him along a deserted lane so that although he could hear and see the fireworks in the distance they were far enough away to be ignored. The rest of the time he was behind my chair or under the dining room table.

One of us had to be here at all times for Basil our parrot he flew a couple of times and when OH went outside and asked the neighbours teenagers if they could move a bit away from our fence because 'youre scaring the dog and the parrot' the boy just shrugged and said so what? He was lucky not to be the forth person to die because OH wanted to wring his neck there and then.

Mad Murphy said:

@arealhuman is it this one? Germany's New Years Eve fireworks ruining air quality | DW | 29.12.2018

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It wasn't that actual article, but that's the story. Shocking, isn't it? Well, on New Year's night, we had about 30-45 minutes of fireworks, with only one or two real loud bangs. It was still enough to upset Jimmy who spent this time on our bed, trembling

On the subject of smoke pollution, a lot of people around where I live are installing wood burners, and the smoke from them is quite bad at times. I'm asthmatic and it does make me cough. I can understand wood burners in the countryside where there's no mains gas supply, but I'm on the outskirts of a large city!!

@arealhuman woodburners .
Not that they are not a great idea in principle but people think they can throw anything and everything onto them. The nasty acrid smoke comes from improper wood being burned or rubbish being added to the burner.
There are lots of them here too and sometimes we think the house is on fire as the smell drifts in through an open window so not only is is awful outside but we cant even ventilate our own house when they burn nasty stuff.