New Year’s eve is celebrated all over the world. The Dutch have a cabaret show and eat oliebollen, a great delicacy, described below, before the fireworks start on New Year’s Eve. Or as the Dutch call it ‘Old Year’s Evening’: the last evening of the old year. This day and age, most countries celebrate the end of the old year and the beginning of the new one at midnight, 31 December.
Not every country celebrates the New Year on 31 December though. The Chinese New Year is traditionally celebrated on the first new moon after 20 January, which will be 29 January in 2025. However tradition is shifting in China, with 31 December also being celebrated more and more.
In the Netherlands, there are a few firm habits for New Years Eve. Shops tend to close a bit earlier than normal, and many people finish work early, just like in the UK.
Oliebollen
Traditionally people eat ‘oliebollen’, a deep fried beignet or fritter-type treat, made from a yeast dough, containing raisins and candied peel. My mother used to add some grated apple to the dough, to make it lighter. After deep frying the balls, they are sprinkled with a generous serving of powdered sugar. They are then eaten on New Year’s Eve, with any leftovers being eaten the next morning.
To make the dough, we used to mix flour with a pinch of salt, make a dip in this mixture and poor in the warmed up milk, yeast and a large spoonful of sugar to start the yeast process off (500 gram flour, 500ml milk at room temperature, yeast: 7-14 grams or different amounts in these proportions, depending on how many people you expect) , mix in raisins, as many as you like, previously soaked in any exciting liquid you fancy, and some candied peel (available as mixed peel called ‘sucade’ in the Netherlands, but any mixed peel or dried fruit in small pieces will do, and some people leave this out if they don’t like it).
Mix together well, it will be quite runny, then pour into large wide pans or bowls (no more than half full to allow for the rising of the dough), put on a warm place to rise for an hour or more (Cover with a cloth, not a lid – it needs oxygen)
Then make and deep fry the dough , making balls using dessert spoons, in hot oil or lard. The whole house will smell of this wonderful treat. There are many variations to the recipe, probably as many as there are people making the oliebollen.
Nigella Lawson kindly put an English version of the recipe online.
Oliebollen can be bought in many bakeries and in markets in the Netherlands in the days before the New year, for those not wanting to spend a few hours in the kitchen.
Or make other goodies
For those who don’t fancy oliebollen, the traditional alternative is apple beignets, or fritters. Slices of apple are coated in batter and then deep fried. And if you don’t fancy making batter, you can use the dough you made for the oliebollen if you are making both, just put a bit aside before adding the raisins and the candied peel, and add a bit more milk to it to make it more runny and easier to coat the apple slices. Considering the apple beignets contain fruit, you could almost call them healthy!
Settle down to the TV
A long standing tradition is to watch a cabaret show on television at the end of the evening (while eating oliebollen, of course). Each year people wait with anticipation to find out which comedian or cabaret performer has been invited to do that year’s show. A glass of bubbly wine or non alcoholic bubbly is often served during the show, as the midnight hour approaches and people want to raise a toast to the approaching year. Families come together for this, and the comedian who has the honour of doing the show discusses events from the year gone by, and at the end of the show the countdown to the New Year starts.
And of course fireworks
At or just after midnight, people tend to set off fireworks in the street, to celebrate the start of the New Year. This is a habit you find all over the globe. Sparklers for the young children, and the even more dangerous fireworks for the older individuals. And yes, each year, people, pets and properties get injured and damaged by fireworks.
New Year’s day is an official holiday in the Netherlands, so most people can have a lie-in, finish the oliebollen for breakfast, and spend the morning discussing the cabaret show with everyone they wish happy New Year to.
