21. Burning Powder

When the night falls on every 31st December, Germany becomes a foggy polluted mess (and the consequences in the air and on the ground remain for a week).

Everywhere, city, countryside, anywhere between, many many people light up fireworks: outside in parks, streets, middle of the road, car parks or even inside on rooftops or balconies. You cannot escape from them.
It last usually until 2 or 3am on 1st of January.

From 31st afternoon until many days after, the air quality becomes as bad as the worst place in the Po Valley in Italy or in India.
Asthmatic beware.

I plan ahead and stock enough food so that I do not have to venture outside.
I also pray for the rain to fall, but unfortunately, the sky was very clear for many weeks that year.

The noise is unbearable, especially for people like me who do not care about this time of year and I usually cannot sleep until 3am.
For animals, it is even worse and I wonder how people who come from war zones can cope.

Some Germans or foreign residents of Germany flee the country, lucky them.

And as a French, I really do not understand this "tradition" as it is:

• dangerous (a colleague got hurt and was fortunate enough that his eye and they apartment are intact when they lit up a firework from their balcony and when the little rocket fell and came inside their flat)
• so noisy that no one can sleep (and can cause troubles to animals and some sensitive persons)
• an obvious source of enormous air pollution that lasts for days