8.00-10.00: Preparing the oliebollen
According to the Dutch, you have to start New Year’s Eve early. Very early. Why? Because the dough for your oliebollen needs to rise. Oliebollen (deep-fried dough balls, sometimes filled with currants or raisins) are the backbone of the Dutch New Year’s celebration: you can’t celebrate New Year's without them (and honestly: they’re delicious)!
While you prepare your dough, still half-asleep, you suddenly realise you forgot the raisins, sunflower oil, or both. So, you run to the supermarket, only to find out half of Enschede is doing the same. You fight for the last batch of raisins like it’s Black Friday, and rush home to finish your dough.
10.00-13.00: Frying oliebollen
After the dough has risen (and your stress level has finally fallen), it’s time for the fun part: frying the oliebollen. While you listen to the Top 2000, the annual radio marathon of the 2000 greatest hits of all time (according to the Dutch), you bake dozens of oliebollen as if your life depends on it. Of course, you should check if the quality of your own baked delicacies is sufficient, so you try one. Or two. Or ten. Anyway, by lunch time, you have produced enough oliebollen for half of Enschede.
13.00-15.00: Carbid schieten
After a good lunch of oliebollen, it’s time for the next Dutch tradition: carbid schieten (carbid shooting). In Twente and some northern and southern regions, this is an annual afternoon activity leading up to New Year’s Eve. It involves adding calcium carbide and water into a milk churn, placing a football on top and making it explode, so that the football is launched across a meadow. You might call it dangerous, we call it tradition ;). Jokes aside, though: keep your distance and bring ear protection. Safety first!
15.00-18.00: Eating (the remaining) oliebollen
Once your friends hear you made oliebollen, they start dropping by. You proudly serve your tray of oliebollen. Everyone wants to try ‘’just one’’ oliebol, which quickly turns into three. After carbid schieten, you’re quite hungry yourself, so you eat a ‘few’ (read: at least five) as well. Before you know it, your mountain of oliebollen is half gone, and you don’t want any more until next December.
18.00-19.00: Dinner
If you’re somehow not full yet, it’s time for a proper dinner. You gather with friends and family, and it’s all very gezellig. People reflect on the past year and look ahead to the next one. Be prepared to answer what your New Year’s resolutions are, because they will be discussed, even though we all know they will be forgotten by 2 January…
19.00-23.59: Celebrating
After dinner, it’s time for those hours that feel endless and fast at the same time. Friends come over, drinks appear, games begin. The TV is playing end-of-the-year specials in the background. Remember, you said you wouldn’t eat another oliebol until next December? That was all a lie: the remaining oliebollen are always finished tonight. After 23.00, beer makes way for champagne, and at 23.50 sharp, the attention shifts to one of the many countdown programmes on TV.
00.00-00.30: Gelukkig nieuwjaar!
The clock hits midnight. Champagne is being popped, the corks fly by, everyone greets each other with “gelukkig nieuwjaar” (happy New Year), while giving each other three kisses on the cheeks (left-right-left). You hit the street and continue wishing every neighbour, their friends and every stranger you come across a gelukkig nieuwjaar. Meanwhile, the sky is filled with fireworks.
00.30-01.00: Fireworks
While outside, you watch in awe as people light up fireworks that cost more than your yearly tuition fee. Luckily, you get to enjoy it for free ;). Be prepared to hear some loud bangs as well, though… It’s all part of the Dutch experience, shall we say.
01.00-??: Partying
After the fireworks, it’s time to party! Whether you go to a club, a bar or a house party, if it has drinks, music and people, it counts! You forget about all your oliebollen stress and New Year’s resolutions and dance the night away! What time is it? No one knows…
12.00-13.00: Nieuwjaarsduik
If you want to feel like a real Dutchie, then head to the Rutbeek the next day for a nieuwjaarsduik: the Dutch tradition of jumping into freezing water on 1 January. You might call us crazy, we call it a fresh start of the new year ;).
Congratulations, you have survived, ehh, I mean celebrated New Year’s the Dutch way. Gelukkig nieuwjaar!
