Welcoming the New Year

Thoughts and images in honor of the new year.

While this year’s new year celebrations have been more subdued and marred by the recent disaster, the changing year offers us a symbolic clean slate. While there is not much that can be done to prevent natural disasters from happening, the latest disaster has shown the need for global coordination in large scale rescue and humanitarian aid issues. Hopefully we will see some improvement in this area.

In Finland towns and cities decided to donate the money reserved for the new year celebrations. Thus we didn’t have any spectacular fireworks this year, but the populace have celebrated the changing year in their normal fashion. Luckily our neck of the woods was peacuful enough that I wasn’t called to work and we got to enjoy the Extended Edition of Return of the King. Below are two pictures from last years celebrations.

Fireworks

They were taken from the top of the hose drying tower of the Joensuu fire station, 25 metres or so above ground level. It was cold and windy. I had to thaw Anna out in a hot shower for an hour afterwards. The panorama will give you a partial view of the skyline of Joensuu during the night. Happy New Year to all!

Joensuu, New Years Eve 2003

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