In British Columbia, many of us spend our New Year’s dancing it up at a local club, pub, or bar. Or perhaps we take in the sights of Downtown Vancouver while enjoying a few laughs with friends and family. Others may spend it indoors with good friends and great drinks.
However, a typical New Year’s tradition in France is considerably different than that of any known New Year’s tradition in Canada… They light cars on fire.
On New Year’s Eve of 2021, the residents of Strasbourg, France took to the streets and ignited over 860 vehicles. Instead of hearing the pop of nearby fireworks, or the cheers of partygoers shouting, “happy new year”, the sound that was heard throughout the streets was that of vehicles exploding after being lit on fire.
Much like any outrageous act, this tradition is thought to have stemmed from the public expressing their feelings of outrage with community and world violence, frustrations about inflation and overall financial crisis, and many other government policies that are frowned upon by the residents.
Much like how the Vancouver Police Department tries to shut down every riot that takes place after a Stanley Cup loss in BC, the French Police make every effort to snuff out the burning tradition, but to no avail. Although they can’t stop the annual burning of the cars, the French government and police have done their best to minimize the publicity that it brings.
Hence why you probably haven’t really heard of it until today, even though the tradition originally started decades ago.
There are many unique and unusual New Year’s Eve traditions from around the world, but only one that involves burning cars, which hails from a specific region in France.
It may sound extremely unusual, but several other neighbouring towns have also adopted this tradition. The only thing is that they don’t publicly flaunt it as much as the town of Strasbourg where it originates from, for fear of being shut down.
This is a big reason why the original regions that started the tradition try so hard to keep it on the down low (or at least their government and local authorities do anyways). The fear is that if other towns start following suit, there will be annual competitions to see which town can burn the most cars. Thus, causing a massive increase of vehicles burned, and responsive chaos as well.
While it may be entertaining to watch your old, scrap vehicle go up in flames on New Year’s Eve, it’s less appealing when you’re watching the fire from the inside of the vehicle. Which was the case last year with a local BC man whose Tesla caught on fire while he was still inside of it.
The man narrowly escaped from his Tesla after it spontaneously caught fire and the doors would not unlock. It was in every newspaper and plastered all over CTV and Global News. Shortly after, many other consumers reported similar instances with their Tesla vehicles, and Tesla promptly issued a recall.
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