Call Us Crazy: New Year's Eve

Ringing in the new year, in Kampen...

The celebration we experienced on New Year's Eve will be one that goes down in the history books. We did not do anything particularly out of the ordinary. In fact, we went to the petting zoo, the grocery store, took naps, that sort of thing. However, the striking contrast of atmosphere that went down this particular day/night, from the "usual Kampen" we have grown to know, was unreal.

There is a tradition in many of the old farming villages/towns in the Netherlands that takes place on New Year's Eve, called "carbide shooting." Perhaps you have heard of this? Probably not (unless you saw my crazy posts on Facebook that day). You take a large milk can, probably 3 feet tall, put a piece of carbide inside, and close the lid. There is a gas that begins to form inside the can. After waiting a few moments, you take a long torch and place it at a small opening on the base of the can. When the moment is right, the lid shoots off the can, creating an intense BOOM sound, that can be heard from miles around.

We had been warned about this tradition, but also did not know quite what to expect. I guess I assumed the shootings would be taking place out in the nearby fields around the town. Boy, was I wrong! These "canons" were going off every 1-5 seconds, from every possible direction, often several at once. They began close to 7am, and did not cease until well after 1am the next day. And they were not faraway in the fields, but as close as three blocks from our house, and on just about every other street corner from there and into town. It was unbelievable!

There were many times the sounds made us laugh, mostly in disbelief of what was happening. However, there were plenty of times the sounds did not make us laugh - particularly when we were trying to sleep, or rather, our kids were trying to sleep. All in all, it was a very memorable experience, one we will all surely look back upon with funny and fond memories of.

Spending some time at the petting zoo with Grandma (while Brant and my dad were off to pick up our rental car for our big road trip). Geoffrey was slightly on edge most of the day as the loud "booms" were occurring non-stop. I'm not sure the animals enjoyed it much, either.

Holding and feeding bunnies. They had classical music playing loudly in this room (which houses most of the animals from horses to goats to bunnies..). I'm thinking the music was going on to try to calm the animals down, cause I've never heard them playing it before.

Maddie is a pro at this - if you can tell, she is on a wooden raft, and she pulls herself from one side of the pond to the other with the rope.

In the late afternoon, we decided to take a bike ride into town, and this was the scene we ran into just a few short blocks from our house. It was a common scene, just about every street corner we turned onto, and one we couldn't seem to turn away from either. It was crazy! These guys are stacking their milk cans into a pyramid structure. Everywhere this was playing out, there was also a large bonfire going, insuring there was hardly a lapse in lighting the next torch! The entire town of Kampen sounded like a warzone.

Can you see the guy sitting on top of the pyramid? Yeah. I was not successful in getting a picture of the actual blast, as the shock waves made the attempted picture too blurry...