After Christmas, comes another very important celebration: New Year’s Eve!
Although I spent a few days with my family for Christmas, I decided, with other volunteers from Aarhus, to be back in time to study how wild the Danes – my favorite study subjects – could go on this night! I was not disappointed at all!
Be ready, here come the conclusions from this, once again, very serious study!
One Bourbon, 3 scotch 10 beers
First things first, the drinking. As mentioned before, Denmark as a real drinking culture, not only causing the youth to be the highest binge drinker in Europe, as it also emphasizes what I call the Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde syndrome. Going from nice little puppies, very respectful of each other and the many social rules of the country, to crazy drunk people, running out of the bus to pee in the street and be back in time to catch the bus right behind (God, I wish I made that up!).
So of course, on New Year’s Eve, alcohol is the most consumed good, causing the Danes to be loud and talk easily to each other!
I can’t really say this tradition is much different from the French one, but coming from the Danes, being wild drunk always come as a surprise!
Bitch better have some money
Another notable problem we had to face in Denmark on this night, which is just an emphasized version of our everyday trouble, is how expansive it can be to go out in this country!
On a regular basis, going out in Denmark can be pretty expansive, since it's necessary to pay to get into most places (bars and clubs). Yet, we always manage to find free events or places almost every week! But, on New Year’s Eve, despite our best effort, it was impossible to get anywhere without paying! Even the bars that are always free decided to charge about 10€ to enter.
Fortunately, being a bunch of internationals celebrating together, we were able to have much fun together during our private home party: having a nice dinner, drinking a very fancy bottle of gin and respecting the Spanish tradition of eating grapes at midnight.
Only then did we put our lives at risk, in order to experience going out in the Danish street for New Year’s Eve!
Baby, you’re a firework
This brings me to my last, but not least, challenge… The fireworks!
A little context for the non-French readers, in France (and Spain, and Portugal, and most “South Europe” countries), individual use of fireworks is not allowed and the municipalities organize official firework, prepared by professionals. Meanwhile, in Denmark, fireworks can be used from December 27th to January 1st by anyone.
Not that I want to be overdramatic, but when you’re French and hear an unexpected explosion’s sound, you first think about a terrorist attack. It took me a while to get used to the noise going from 6 pm till midnight every night of the week, but eventually, I made it. However, when midnight rings on New Year’s Eve, the situation gets out of control! Safely installed behind our windows, we were able to watch about 5 fireworks happening close to our house at the same time. We loved it at first, but when had to be out in the street, trying out best to avoid being killed by one of the firework’s explosion.
Although it was very nice to celebrate all together, with our different traditions, the beginning of the new year, the thing I was the most thankful was making it in one piece!
No hard feelings, I love you and all, but when it comes to New Year’s Eve, really,
What The Fuck Denmark?