Berliner and Dutch honour the New Year’s dip tradition

Swimmers dive into the cold waters of the North Sea to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Scheveningen, a seaside resort in The Hague, the Netherlands, despite the cancellation of the official event due to a national Covid-19 lockdown. Members of a German winter-swimming club took their traditional first swim of the New Year with a dip in Berlin’s Lake Oranke on Saturday. Rather than the usual icy dip, the water temperature was a very mild 6.5 degrees Celsius (44 degrees Farenheit), with an air temperature of around 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Farenheit). With some in fancy dress, the members of the Berliner Seals swimming club waded into Lake Oranke to celebrate the New Year. The Berlin winter has so far been relatively mild, except over Christmas when temperatures dropped to minus 5 degrees Celsius (23 degrees Farenheit). The winter usually swimming club meets every Sunday to swim in Lake Oranke on the edge of Berlin. Some members, like Kristal Barth, have been winter swimming for over 30 years. Their main wish for 2022 was peace and good health – and a return to normality.