Any good New Year's Eve celebration in Iceland needs four things:
1) A few cold beers
2) A bonfire with flames reaching at a height of at least 8 or 9 metres
3) A boot load of the biggest fireworks I've ever seen
4) Children with matches
Before I begin, I need to state that this is unlike anything I have seen before. Not only is it a crazy night, but all of it (apart of course from point 1 above) is intended for the whole family. What I experienced is considered a low key affair, with those wanting the real craziness heading south to Reykjavík.
To make things easy, the night is separated in to a few different activities, thus enabling even the most inebriated of persons to fully partake in the festivities. First of course is some fine wine (or the cheapest beer available) to accompany dinner. A few of us were lucky enough to be invited for a mouth watering dinner of lamb, some German potato thing, and heavily rum laden home made ice-cream at Eik's house. At 8:00pm sharpish, those remaining of the village on 'Old Years Eve' as Icelander's call it, set off to have a few drinks and a sing song at an unbelievably large bonfire.
2) A bonfire with flames reaching at a height of at least 8 or 9 metres
3) A boot load of the biggest fireworks I've ever seen
4) Children with matches
Before I begin, I need to state that this is unlike anything I have seen before. Not only is it a crazy night, but all of it (apart of course from point 1 above) is intended for the whole family. What I experienced is considered a low key affair, with those wanting the real craziness heading south to Reykjavík.
To make things easy, the night is separated in to a few different activities, thus enabling even the most inebriated of persons to fully partake in the festivities. First of course is some fine wine (or the cheapest beer available) to accompany dinner. A few of us were lucky enough to be invited for a mouth watering dinner of lamb, some German potato thing, and heavily rum laden home made ice-cream at Eik's house. At 8:00pm sharpish, those remaining of the village on 'Old Years Eve' as Icelander's call it, set off to have a few drinks and a sing song at an unbelievably large bonfire.
Rósa, Raika, Cat, Me and Eik getting a true fire and ice experience
If I hadn't already shaved, I think my beard would've melted offNext on the agenda is an impressive fireworks display put on by the local rescue team. Lasting all of a minute and a half or so, somewhere in the order of 500,000 ISK worth of China's best sky candy was enjoyed by the small crowd.
Loose bonfire? Check. Epic fireworks? Check. Honey, where are the kids?
Check ya self on that bonnie
Ooh ahhAfter the display it was time to head home again to watch the spectacle that is Áramótaskaupið (the New Year's comedy). The tv show is an annual Icelandic television comedy special, and is an important part of Icelandic New Year's celebration for most. It focuses upon the recent year from a satirical standpoint, and shows little mercy towards its victims, especially politicians, artists, prominent businesspeople and activists. This year the funniest portion for me involved a polar bear sitting down at a meeting with suggestions for government officials on how to resolve the current economic crisis. As was the case here in Sauðárkrókur not so long ago - he was promptly shot ...
Next up, as with every Icelandic event, is more alcohol. Between 10 and 12 you have to pace yourself however, as there is still an important duty to be performed. Not content with the public displays, Icelander's spend upwards of a month's salary on boxes and boxes of fireworks that they let off in a simultaneous, chaotic and I'm guessing pretty dangerous manner at midnight. Bjarni (my supervisor) came to the party with an actual boot load ... what a good lad.
Next up, as with every Icelandic event, is more alcohol. Between 10 and 12 you have to pace yourself however, as there is still an important duty to be performed. Not content with the public displays, Icelander's spend upwards of a month's salary on boxes and boxes of fireworks that they let off in a simultaneous, chaotic and I'm guessing pretty dangerous manner at midnight. Bjarni (my supervisor) came to the party with an actual boot load ... what a good lad.
Bjarni supplied a boot load of firepower with names I could only guess at ...
Cat and Dan ducking and weaving to avoid eye loss
"Road flares aren't for emergencies - they're for New Years dummy!"In Reykjavík, the madness of individual people's fireworks looked like this ...
Once everyone's hard earned (and now largely worthless outside of the country) cash has literally gone up in smoke, it is time for - you guessed it - beer club :o) You may notice that my name appears both before and after the celebrations. My bad. I hope everyone else had a great new years - and all the best for 2009.
Beer Club is my friend
No comments:
Post a Comment