by FFE EU News Staff

An estimated 46,000 Dutch from all around the Netherlands took off their clothes to meet the New Year in the icy North Sea.

The main event of the traditional New Year’s dip took place in the historic seaside resort Scheveningen in The Hague, where some 10,000 participants braved the 7.5 Celsius waters. While the temperature of the water was ‘relatively warm,’ the chilly wind brought it further down to 3 Celsius at some points.

Organisers said that the New Year’s dip or Nieuwjaarsduik is a tradition that started in 1960 when a group of friends decided to take a swim to start a fresh new year. This year, thousands of bikini-clad swimmers ran to the water’s edge and back in the hopes of getting the coveted orange hat and can of Dutch pea soup from the organisers.