New Year’s Eve… We start the new year by celebrating to the maximum. Also in exam period so I said for this holiday again: bye bye books…
For New Year’s Eve I was still in Denmark with my boyfriend’s family and so I also got to experience this holiday in the Scandinavian country. Also at this holiday there are some differences in celebrating the new year. Let’s just all sum them up.
Ofcourse I would say it depends from person to person but I think I can somehow generalize that it is the tradition to celebrate NYE with friends instead of family for the whole evening and night. In my environment in Belgium it is more the tradition to first start the evening out with a big dinner with family and then when the clock gets closer to 12 o’clock young people leave their houses with family to see their friends and party with them. In Denmark you start the evening around 17-18 o’clock with a group of friends until the early morning hours.
So NYE starts quite early in Denmark, but why is that? Danish people really LOVE their royal family and they are very popular, unlike in Belgium, and so it is the tradition for every household or NYE party that is going on to watch the Queen’s speech at 18 o’clock where she talks about the year that has passed.
In Belgium our King only has a speech at Christmas but I don’t think that reaches a number of views that takes up 1/3th of the population… So the royal family has quite a big influence and popularity in this country.
Danish people love their Queen and their royal family so 1/3th of the population is behind their screen at New Year’s Eve to see what the Queen has to say this year.
Another thing that is quite common in Scandinavia so also Denmark is the culture of alcohol. We also tend to drink quite some on NYE ofcourse but I think the alcohol culture is a little more outspoken in the northern part of Europe. There is always loads of alcohol served with every dish.
So after the Queen’s speech we have a traditional 4 courses menu which is quite the same as in Belgium. But what I noticed was that the dinnertable was full of party decoration and party hats and everything. Also when I shopped into the Danish supermarket there was traditionally a whole department with NYE decoration and party accessoires to make the dinner table party proof. I haven’t seen that as much in Belgium. Danish people really loooove NYE a lot, I think it is one of their favourite holidays in the year, especially since they love to party in this country.
The traditional marzipan ring cake that is being eaten when they toast to the new year after midnight.
When the clock tends to announce the new year, everyone will sit together with a glass of champagne and Danish marzipan cake to toast on the new year. After that they all go watch the fireworks and go party until the early hours, which is quite the same as in Belgium.
Just a small note about the fireworks, I saw the news the day after NYE that there have been 113 people severly injured because of the fireworks (people that lose certain body parts or lose their eyesight). Even when I was watching the fireworks, it got put 2 meters in front of me, I didn’t think it was safe at all! And a lot of people make fireworks on themselves with all the horrible consequences after.
(I am really generalizing in this post, ofcourse some things will be different in certain families but overall these are the main differences)
Me celebrating with a glass of champagne to the new year. My motto for dressing on NYE is to go all the way with glitters and make up. I think this is the only day in the year where you can’t be too much with your make-up and dressing style. The dress is something I don’t wear at a normal party during the year since it is quite revealing and over the top with the glitters but I think for this one day, this type of dress shouldn’t be considered trashy but right into the dresscode. I love it! (Dress from Lipsy)
