A traditional Danish New Year's party is rather different to what I am used to in Australia (a BBQ and/or some drinks with friends). Here, the New Year's party is possibly the most important meal you have with your friends throughout the whole year (Christmas is something you celebrate with your family, and I think that meal may be more important). The whole affair is typically a sit down formal dinner with no holding back. Lots of candles on the table (required for any good hygge get-together in winter), streamers, party hats, poppers, and various explosives which in some countries are possibly only legal if used out-doors!
Fireworks in the streets! Unfortunately I can't rotate the video without losing the audio track - so just tilt your head!
Anyway, the evening begins at 6pm (or 18 is we write over here) with watching the Queen's speech on TV. Unfortunately, I stupidly relied on the massively overcrowded bus system on Friday night and therefore missed this all important event. This was then followed by an amazing 3 course dinner at which I was seated between 2 beautiful blonde Danish girls, peppered with sparkling wine. In addition to our mini-indoor fireworks, there was a constant stream of explosions outside. At around 11:30pm the TV was turned on for another Danish tradition - watching the German (yet English) show Dinner For One. Whilst most intrigued by this, today I discovered it is actually also shown in Australia ever New Year's Eve on SBS - who woulda thought! Creeping up to mid-night we got a live feed of TV from the clock in Rådhuspladsen (Town Square) and finally the chimes. This called for another Danish tradition - jumping off a chair (or anything really) whilst openning a bottle of champagne (I'm not sure how much of a tradition that second part really is). This 'jumping into the new year' is apparently an important part of the evening!
Before the party continued with music and dancing, we went out in the streets to see the fireworks. And boy did we see fireworks. Earlier on Friday I got a hint of what it was going to be like when mid-afternoon some people decided that the T-junction at the end of my street was a good place to launch fireworks - the cars come second. Now for those of us living in civilised countries where fireworks are meant for people with licenses or the city council, even for those of us from Canberra where once upon a time private fireworks were commonplace on the Queen's Birthday long weekend - this is a whole 'nother ballgame! Anyone and everyone buys fireworks, and not just pissy little ones, but serious rockets, fountains and noisemakers. Things which you cannot believe can be bought by members of the public. And people must spend some insane amount of money on them (although, I have discovered since living here that although costs are very high in Denmark, the 2 things you can buy very cheaply are alcohol in supermarkets, and fireworks). So instead of a 20 minute firework show put on by the city, we had a show going on all evening and in all directions - the culmination being shortly after midnight. I was flabbergasted by it all, and surprised that there aren't serious casualties...
All in all, a fantastic New Year's party that I believe was enjoyed by all.
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