New Years in Oslo Explosions everywhere. Drunk young'ns. Roman candle fired into a house. Good times. One of the great things about Oslo during New Years is the snow. Not because it white or beautiful, but because it's fireproof. For y'all that come from the Midwest, this may not be a new experience, but for this used-to-live-in-brown-hills-drought-stricken-California guy, it was quite a shock.
There is no one show, no Disneyland or Sea World or city funded barge in the bay, new years is a Do It Yourself event in Norway. And they take it very seriously. We went for a walk around the house a few minutes after midnight to see what we could see. There were several big explosions in one spot, which I figured was 'the show', then several more from behind, then some from the left, and slowly (it was in the 25 degrees F outside) in realized I was in the middle of an exploding city. Everywhere I looked there was bursts of color along the horizon and behind trees. The sound of explosions were a constant hum.
The method of the madness behind this, as best as I can figure from by observations of live Norwegians, goes like this:

1) Get alcohol way in advance. This is harder to get then the explosives.

2) Get fireworks way in advance.

3) On the 31st, start drinking.

4) When it's midnight, stagger to a nearby street corner, the one with the crowd of other drunks, and set off your explosives. They seem to think it's safer to blow things up while standing inside of a tightly packed group of people.

We witnessed one of these packs doing their work. This group had gathered under some power/telephone cables and everybody was drunk, some so drunk they were throwing themselves onto cars that passed by. From this group of 30 or 60 people a constant stream of entertainment would flow. Did I mention they were all under the drinking age? Yea, no boring adults here. Except the ones on the balcony of the nearest house. They looked like adults, quietly watching the mayhem in the street below. It really was a good show. Then the drunk guy put a roman candle in the snow at a wee bit too low of an angle, and it shot directly into the balcony, the entire candle. The adults retreated to the safety of inside, and watched the rest of the show from behind a window. Nobody seemed to get hurt, and that lovely snow kept the house form bursting into flame. And from what I hear, that was a bit unusual. A rumor I heard was 1000 people get hurt each year in Norway on new years. And with a total population of 4 million, that's pretty big.
I have to say this was one of the best New Years yet. I have never been in the middle of a constant fireworks show, I cannot say how amazing that was, the roman candle and drunks were only added bonuses. Posted by byron at January 03, 2003 05:13 PM