Brave souls take New Year´s plunge in icy water

Source: CCTV.com | 01-02-2009 11:26

People in the Netherlands, the US, and Italy have taken a traditional dive in ice-cold waters to celebrate New Year's Day.  Their defiance of the cold has proved quite inspirational.

People in the Netherlands, the US, and Italy have  taken a traditional dive in ice-cold waters to celebrate New Year's Day.

In the Netherlands, a record 21-thousand participants in forty-eight locations across the country took part in the traditional New Year's plunge into the North Sea.

Over 6 thousand of them gathered in Scheveningen, about 10 kilometers west of The Hague. They braved temperatures of minus 4 degree Celsius as they ran into the icy water.

In Chicago, the US, a group of people also celebrated the New Year by taking a traditional "polar plunge" in Lake Michigan.

Some people were taking the plunge for charity. The annual dip has entered its 9th year in Chicago.

In New York, several hundred plungers also marked the the New Year by taking a dip in the frigid water of Sandy Hook Bay.