Tens of thousands join New Year’s Dives around the Netherlands
Tens of thousands of people took part in one of the many New Year’s Dives on Sunday, a tradition which dates back in the Netherlands to 1965, according to Nu.nl. The largest of these events was held at the Scheveningen Beach in The Hague, where the North Sea water temperature was expected to be about 7 degrees on a relatively mild New Year’s Day that meteorologists thought would break the record for the warmest ever.
Organizers who helped arrange New Year’s Dives nationally told ANP that over 50,000 people participated at 142 locations in the Netherlands, and another 11 spots abroad, including hundreds who continued the tradition in Australia.
Several thousand people showed up at Scheveningen for the first organized New Year’s dive since the start of 2020. The event was put on hold after that due to restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic. Wearing orange hats ringed in the colors of the Dutch flag, they all ran into the North Sea at about noon. They then staked their claim to soup being passed out by volunteers on behalf of the annual event’s sponsor, Unox.
During the pandemic, Unox also distributed boxes including water which was canned at the North Sea. This was to encourage people to participate in a New Year’s dive at home by dumping water on themselves in their backyards and on balconies.
Though swimsuits are worn at the Scheveningen event, clothing was discouraged for skinny dipping dives in Zandvoort and Leeuwarden. Hundreds, if not thousands, of others joined dives elsewhere along the coast. According to Nu.nl, about 2,500 people took part at the event in Egmond.
The first dive of the New Year’s period already happened in Winterswijk on Friday, claimed Unox in promotional material published this weekend. A relay than continued the 250 kilometers to Scheveningen.
