Scheveningen New Years Dip

What on earth possesses people to race into the ice-cold sea on January 1? The New Year has only just begun and the resolutions have barely died on one’s lips. We want to look forward, do even better in the year to come, stride into a bright future. But first it seems there has to be a mass cleansing of sins. What started out in the Sixties as a madcap scheme dreamt up by a couple of robust boys and girls has become a tradition, and not just in Scheveningen. There they go, our heroes, the leaders have already reached the water. A sausage manufacturer has kitted them out in orange woolly hats, but those will only keep their ears warm. Their clothed fellow men from a respectful guard of honour.