It's not normal in the sense that most people can cope with sudden noises, but I'm sure you understand that already.
People can be inconsiderate, selfish dicks. What those people who set off fireworks at all hours are actually doing is shouting, "Look at me! I'm here! And I'm so damn powerful and important that I can disrupt your evening, wake you up in the middle of the night or make you jump if I want to!"
Given what you say, one thing you definitely never want to do is be in The Netherlands in the period leading up to New Year and on the night itself.
A lot of Dutch people are total arseholes when it comes to New Year fireworks. We stayed with my mother-in-law in Holland over the Christmas-New Year period a few years ago, and there were intermittent huge bangs echoing around the small town she lives in starting from before Christmas. My Dutch wife had warned me that things could get noisy, so I wasn't surprised on New Year's Eve when the bangs increased in frequency as they day went on, and people started setting off those box-displays in their back gardens before nine in the evening. From around 11:30, things got quiet. Midnight came, and all that could be heard were the distant displays put on by the big cities nearby. I thought, "Well, this is okay. My wife must have been exaggerating about how bad it is." Things remained pretty quiet after midnight, because the tradition is for people to call friends and family the moment the clock ticks over.
But then, at around a quarter past, all hell broke loose, with loads of people setting off enormous firecrackers and their box displays in the streets. People are packed in pretty tightly in Dutch towns, and of course everyone wanted to enjoy their display without competition nearby, so there was a sort of ripple effect around the town until about four in the morning. Interspersed with all this were the occasional sirens of the police, fire brigade and ambulances rushing off to deal with burning cars and idiots who had managed to injure themselves or others by doing something stupid with their pyrotechnics.
If that sounds hellish to you, you're right. It's not something I ever want to experience again.
My wife tells me it's actually not too bad these days compared to how it was twenty years ago.
Dislike fireworks
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It's not normal in the sense that most people can cope with sudden noises, but I'm sure you understand that already.
People can be inconsiderate, selfish dicks. What those people who set off fireworks at all hours are actually doing is shouting, "Look at me! I'm here! And I'm so damn powerful and important that I can disrupt your evening, wake you up in the middle of the night or make you jump if I want to!"
Given what you say, one thing you definitely never want to do is be in The Netherlands in the period leading up to New Year and on the night itself.
A lot of Dutch people are total arseholes when it comes to New Year fireworks. We stayed with my mother-in-law in Holland over the Christmas-New Year period a few years ago, and there were intermittent huge bangs echoing around the small town she lives in starting from before Christmas. My Dutch wife had warned me that things could get noisy, so I wasn't surprised on New Year's Eve when the bangs increased in frequency as they day went on, and people started setting off those box-displays in their back gardens before nine in the evening. From around 11:30, things got quiet. Midnight came, and all that could be heard were the distant displays put on by the big cities nearby. I thought, "Well, this is okay. My wife must have been exaggerating about how bad it is." Things remained pretty quiet after midnight, because the tradition is for people to call friends and family the moment the clock ticks over.
But then, at around a quarter past, all hell broke loose, with loads of people setting off enormous firecrackers and their box displays in the streets. People are packed in pretty tightly in Dutch towns, and of course everyone wanted to enjoy their display without competition nearby, so there was a sort of ripple effect around the town until about four in the morning. Interspersed with all this were the occasional sirens of the police, fire brigade and ambulances rushing off to deal with burning cars and idiots who had managed to injure themselves or others by doing something stupid with their pyrotechnics.
If that sounds hellish to you, you're right. It's not something I ever want to experience again.
My wife tells me it's actually not too bad these days compared to how it was twenty years ago.