Fireworks Fireworks are a class of Explosive, low explosive Pyrotechnics, pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a l ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

are mostly regulated by the ''Vuurwerkbesluit'' ("Fireworks Decree"), a 1993 law that has subsequently been amended many times to make the rules surrounding the production, testing, transportation, storage, trade, sale, consumption and overall safety of fireworks stricter. During most of the year, most fireworks are restricted to usage by professionals, but there is an exception for ordinary citizens without any special training or licence to ignite fireworks during

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly referred to ...

from 6 pm on 31 December to 2 am on 1 January. Especially since the 2000

Enschede fireworks disaster The Enschede fireworks disaster was a catastrophic fireworks explosion on 13 May 2000 in Enschede, the Netherlands. The explosion killed 23 people including four firefighters and injured nearly 1,000. A total of 400 homes were destroyed and 1,5 ...

, and more so since the accident-laden

of 2007/08, public discussion on more rigorous regulation or even prohibition on (consumer) fireworks has been frequent and ongoing.

Annual events

New Year's Eve

At New Year's Eve, ordinary Dutch citizens are allowed to light fireworks from 6 pm on 31 December to 2 am on 1 January. Fireworks need to comply to certain legal standards, and may only be sold during the last three days of the year, excluding any Sundays, at a shop that has a licence. Fireworks are often lit in the streets or in people's

backyard A backyard, or back yard (known in the United Kingdom as a back garden or just garden), is a yard at the back of a house, common in suburban developments in the Western world. In Australia, until the mid-20th century, the back yard of a pro ...

Koningsdag

During

Koningsdag ''Koningsdag'' () or King's Day is a national holiday in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Celebrated on 27 April (26 April if the 27th is a Sunday), the date marks the birth of King Willem-Alexander. When the Dutch monarch is female, the holi ...

("King's Day"), several municipalities throughout the country organize fireworks shows by professionals.

Vuurwerkfestival Scheveningen

The Vuurwerkfestival Scheveningen (

Scheveningen Scheveningen is one of the eight districts of The Hague, Netherlands, as well as a subdistrict (''wijk'') of that city. Scheveningen is a modern seaside resort with a long, sandy beach, an esplanade, a pier, and a lighthouse. The beach is po ...

Fireworks Festival), conducted by professionals, is annually attended by around 200,000 people. In the summer of 2017, the festival experienced its 38th edition. In 2016, there were winter fireworks shows for the first time.

Regulation and enforcement

Fireworks companies

The Netherlands used to host several fireworks manufacturers, but in the late 20th century, almost all production of fireworks was moved abroad. In 2000, there were 26 fireworks companies active in the Netherlands, with branches in

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; fy, Ljouwert, longname=yes /; Town Frisian: ''Liwwadden''; Leeuwarder dialect: ''Leewarden'') is a city and municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 123,107 (2019). It is the provincial capital and seat of the ...

Appingedam Appingedam (; gos, n Daam) is a city and former municipality in the northeastern Netherlands. Although there is no certainty as to the exact age of Appingedam, historical research demonstrates that the place in which the city would eventually b ...

Lichtenvoorde Lichtenvoorde is a town in the east of the Netherlands, in the municipality of Oost Gelre. Lichtenvoorde holds a flower parade (''bloemencorso'') every September at the start of its annual festival. The parade features floats covered in flowers ...

Tilburg Tilburg () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern province of North Brabant. With a population of 222,601 (1 July 2021), it is the second-largest city or municipality in North Brabant after Eindhoven and the seventh-larg ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

Enschede Enschede (; known as in the local Twents dialect) is a municipality and city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Overijssel and in the Twente region. The eastern parts of the urban area reaches the border of the German city of Gronau ...

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

, Lijnden,

Dronten Dronten () is a municipality and a town in the central Netherlands, in the province of Flevoland. It had a population of in . History Plans for the municipality of Dronten were made in the early half of the 1950s; real plans for the town of Dr ...

Lelystad Lelystad () is a municipality and a city in the centre of the Netherlands, and it is the capital of the province of Flevoland. The city, built on reclaimed land, was founded in 1967 and was named after Cornelis Lely, who engineered the Afsluitdi ...

and

Landgraaf Landgraaf (; li, Lankgraaf ) is a municipality in southeastern Limburg, Netherlands, forming part of the Parkstad Limburg agglomeration. ''Snow World'' is the largest indoor ski piste in Europe. Population centres *Nieuwenhagen *Schaesberg *Ub ...

. 14 of these imported fireworks from especially

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

for sale on the Dutch market, the 12 other businesses conducted professional fireworks shows. In some factories such as S.E. Fireworks (which ceased producing fireworks itself in 1985), Chinese fireworks were further assembled in the Netherlands before being sold. Since the 1991 explosion of the fireworks factory in Culemborg, almost all fireworks companies operated outside of

residential area A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family residen ...

s; S.E. Fireworks, which caused the 2000

, was the last company to still be located in the middle of a residential area before a planned relocation in 2002.

Safety testing

In the Netherlands, the

Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek (TNO; en, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) is an independent research organisation in the Netherlands that focuses on applied science. The organisat ...

(TNO) is responsible for safety testing of fireworks. Since 2010, safety testing of fireworks is required in the entire European Union, but companies are allowed to test their products in one member state before importing and selling them in another. A 2010 document from the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment revealed that several fireworks importers in the

did not yet comply with the new testing regulations, but were not penalised for it because a number of companies claimed they needed more time to implement the changes, and they were granted exceptions by the Ministry. Dream Fireworks owner Frits Pen, who claimed to have had his fireworks tested in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

for thousands of euros, sued the Ministry for failing to punish his competitors who were allowed to import and sell untested fireworks for free. In 2014, the Ministry stated that, by then, 80% of the fireworks imported into the Netherlands had a

CE marking On commercial products, the letters CE (as the logo ) mean that the manufacturer or importer affirms the good's conformity with European health, safety, and environmental protection standards. It is not a quality indicator or a certificatio ...

and were being checked. According to a 2017 report by the

Dutch Safety Board The Dutch Safety Board (DSB; nl, Onderzoeksraad voor Veiligheid, OVV, literally "Investigation Council for Safety") is an organisation based in The Hague, Netherlands.

Injury, damage and nuisance

Fireworks in the Netherlands are known to cause various negative effects to users, bystanders and people living nearby, especially around New Year's Eve, when extra police, firefighters and paramedics are deployed to control the situation. Which measures do and do not work, and how matters may be improved without 'ruining the party', is subject to ongoing discussion. The negative effects of fireworks can be divided into: *

Noise pollution Noise pollution, also known as environmental noise or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise with ranging impacts on the activity of human or animal life, most of them are harmful to a degree. The source of outdoor noise worldwide is main ...

because of unexpectedly loud explosions (especially troublesome for animals) *

Air pollution Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...

because of the smoke created by fireworks (in 2008,

smog Smog, or smoke fog, is a type of intense air pollution. The word "smog" was coined in the early 20th century, and is a portmanteau of the words ''smoke'' and '' fog'' to refer to smoky fog due to its opacity, and odor. The word was then inte ...

by fireworks smoke caused dozens of traffic accidents, killing two people) *

Injuries An injury is any physiological damage to living tissue caused by immediate physical stress. An injury can occur intentionally or unintentionally and may be caused by blunt trauma, penetrating trauma, burning, toxic exposure, asphyxiation, or ...

and fear of being hit by fireworks (either by accident or on purpose; during New Year's Eve 2016/17, 61% of victims were bystanders, 39% were the igniters themselves) *

Vandalism Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The term f ...

and accidents by (illegal) fireworks causing damage and destruction to infrastructure and property * Disruption of public order by, amongst other things, violence against public servants (police, firefighters and paramedics) using fireworks

National and European legislation

The original ''Vuurwerkbesluit'' was adopted in 1993, and was primarily concerned with environmental issues. In the wake of the 2000 Enschede fireworks disaster, the Dutch government approved new rules regarding consumer and professional fireworks on 22 January 2002, especially concerning the safety of fireworks storage. Since then, the ''Vuurwerkbesluit'' has been amended a number of additional times, including the 2014 limitation of the period during which fireworks may be lit during New Year's Eve from 10 am to 6 pm on 31 December. Since the adoption of the 2007 European Pyrotechnic articles Directive, the Dutch ''Vuurwerkbesluit'' has been amended by 2010 to harmonise legislation with that of other EU member states concerning, amongst other things, the categorisation, trade and safety of fireworks, and a common approach of countering illegal fireworks. The updated 2013 Pyrotechnic articles Directive led to another amendment of the ''Vuurwerkbesluit''. So-called "consumer fireworks" (''consumentenvuurwerk'' or ''particulier vuurwerk'') in the Netherlands consists of category F1 (on sale and usable throughout the year by every person aged 12 and older without a special licence or training), and category F2 and F3 (on sale the last three days of the year, Sundays excepted, which are to be lit from 6 pm on 31 December until 2 am on 1 January). Category F4 is reserved for professionals, and aside from New Year's Eve, categories F2 and F3 are also reserved for professionals. In Belgium, Germany and Denmark, the sale of all category F3 fireworks to consumers is forbidden, but in the Netherlands, some fireworks in this category may be purchased by lay people. Since 2011, the Dutch College of Attorney Generals has pushed for stricter European rules on fireworks, to prevent category F4 fireworks from being bought in other EU countries and smuggled into the Netherlands. Because of "flaws in the Pyrotechnic articles Directive", there are dangers for local security and

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

threats. The Netherlands also have a considerable illegal fireworks problem. In 2014, about 1 million kilos of illegal fireworks entered the country annually. According to inquiries by VeiligheidNL, illegal fireworks used to cause most fireworks-related injuries (almost two-thirds of all fireworks-related injuries during New Year's Eve 2012–13), but since New Year's Eve of 2013–14 more than half was caused by legal fireworks. Illegal fireworks were responsible for more serious injuries, however, and resulted in four times as many hospitalisations. During New Year's Eve 2014–15, the percentage of injuries by illegal fireworks decreased to almost 40%. During New Year's Eve 2015–16 and 2016–17, illegal fireworks were to blame for about 25% of fireworks-related injuries. For New Year's Eve 2020-21, the government prohibited fireworks, citing that the number of injuries would place too much stress on the healthcare system during the

COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands The COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The virus reached the Netherlands on 27 February 2020, when its first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Tilburg. It involved a 56-year-old Dutchman ...

References

External links

{{Commons category, Fireworks in the Netherlands
Government to tackle nuisance caused by fireworks
– Dutch Government press release

Culture of the Netherlands Law of the Netherlands Safety in the European Union