World-Class New Year’s Fireworks in Madeira

 
If you don’t already have a New Year’s Resolution for the new year, why not make a fun one right now? And the good thing about my suggestion is that you have a whole 365 days to make it happen! What’s this resolution? It actually is a bit of a toofer: 1) to travel more/somewhere new, and 2) to have a New Year’s Eve that isn’t, well, anticlimactic. Madeira’s world-class fireworks display is not only incredible, it’s also a tradition that is getting better with time.

 
Perhaps you weren’t aware that the New Year’s Eve fireworks display in Funchal, Madeira’s capital, is one of the best in the world – but it is! If you don’t feel like facing frosty winter temperatures to watch the fireworks where you are, Funchal’s mild winters and spectacular displays are the perfect solution to your dilemma. Not only will you get to travel to a beautiful destination and ring in the new year on a gorgeous island, you’ll also be guaranteed a fireworks display that you won’t forget in a hurry. The video below shows just how stunning the 2016-2017 display was.

 
If you are interested in going to Madeira to see the show for yourself, you should know that the tradition goes all the way back to the 17th century, when New Year’s Eve was celebrated with bonfires. In the 18th century, the island’s British population introduced the first fireworks. In the following century, a Madeiran banker by the name of João José Rodrigues Leitão adopted the tradition, and soon thereafter the richest families on the island were competing for the best fireworks display. And so with each passing year, the fireworks got bigger and better. Nowadays, fireworks are launched from land and sea. In 2006, Madeira’s fireworks display was awarded the “biggest fireworks display in the world”, by the Guinness Book of World Records.

 
If going to see this unique display isn’t worthy of a new year’s resolution, I don’t know what is!

 
Cover photo c/o funchalnoticias.net