2024 Started with a Berlin does fireworks differently then anywhere else. Growing up in rural Ohio 4th of July followed a fun and repetitive cycle from your tweens till college. You and your family go you the park, where there is a dedicated seating area, your family sets down a blanket then the kids start to play. As you are playing red rover the police are standing between the seating area and where the fireworks will be launched from. Since you are visually shielded from seeing them settings up rumors of how the fireworks will be this year spread amongst the kids. “the pyrotechnics expert this year was brought in from Tennessee where there are no fireworks laws there.” Eventually the show begins, you run to your blanket and watch the explosions. I remember one year leaving because the wind was harsh and some of the debris was landing on blankets near us. It was considered too dangerous. After the fireworks are done you recap your favorites as you walk to your friends house where their older siblings got ahold of some firecrackers or bottle rockets which they launch into the air. Berlin does things different. In the days leading up to the 2024 new years eve celebration we heard rumors but we though “we are from the US, a house gets burnt down one a year how bad can it be”. We had friends who said they had to leave the city with their pets for the week because they couldn’t handle the explosions. “Sounds dramatic, but happy they can do that” my internal monologe would say. My hubris and their warning signs could not prepair me. The week leading up to new years the fireworks would go off periodically. I came to learn that there are telegram groups that take orders and make runs to Poland to buy fireworks. On the special day around 8pm the fireworks start, and melodically yet randomly eb and flow till midnight. At which point the entire city erupts. The fireworks dont’ have a governing body, it is chaos. You see an explosion in the sky, “ooh, ahh” my simple midwest mind goes. Then my amigdola (this is fight or flight part of brain right?) gets put on high alert as a firework fly into our corner of the street. Everyone runs for cover. I look back to see the explosion and a gristled old couple with climbing glasses not bothered by the blast of color exploding from mere feet away from them. People on a balcony have left their door open to get fresh air into their flat, big mistake. Kids are attempting to shoot fireworks into their apartment. Luckily nothing flys straight and they are just bouncing off the walls. The experience was absolutely worth staying up 2 hours later then normal for.
2 January 2025