In Germany and Italy, people took part in unique traditions to welcome 2025, including daring swimming and diving events.
While some people prefer to spend the first day of the new year recovering at home from festivities, others take a different approach.
In Berlin, some brave swimmers welcomed the new year with the annual tradition of ice bathing. Bathers of the Berlin Seals club swam and danced in the chilly water.
“The nice thing is that it’s fun, refreshing and it’s simply part of starting the New Year,” said Harold Kraft, member of the Berlin Seals.
The water temperature in the morning stood at 6°C while the outside temperature was 4°C.
In Italy, three men dived into the Tiber River from Rome’s 18-metre-high Cavour Bridge on New Year’s Day to keep alive a tradition dating back to 1946.
This year’s event began with Maurizio Palmulli, who revived the tradition in 1989 and is known as ‘Mr. Ok,’ passing the torch to fellow veteran diver Marco Fois, as he officially announced his retirement and decided to “hang up the swimming suit.”
Fois showed off a spectacular jump, preceded by two other divers, Walter Schirra and Simone Carabella.
The three were plucked off Tiber’s waters by a team of firefighters standing just under the bridge on a dinghy boat.
The Netherlands also organises a massively popular New Year’s Dive at Scheveningen beach in The Hague each year. The event attracts around 10,000 people yearly, starting the year with a dip into the freezing North Sea.
This year, however, the annual Dutch tradition had to be cancelled due to strong winds. It was just the second time the event was cancelled, the last time being in 2007 for the same reason.
