Twelve midnight in Germany, New Year's Eve. Instantaneously the sky is
filled with multicoloured stars from high flying rockets and every type of large and loud firework imaginable, while as making as much noise as possible at Silvester is crucial to the celebrations their deafening bangs, cracks and whistles echo through the night, accompanied by the ringing of countless church bells. If a Christmas in Germany is a time of contemplation and quiet enjoyment then a German New Year is one of noise and exuberance. It is still spent with family and friends but the streets are filled with revellers, firework displays are everywhere, from those with small groups to the over one million people at the largest New Year's celebration in Europe, at the Brandenburg Gate in Germany's capital Berlin.
An old year has come to an end and a new year begun.
December 31st is Silvester, New Years Eve in Germany, the feast day for Saint Sylvester a Pope who died in Rome on 31st December, 335, and in the days and hours leading up to midnight on ‘Silversterabend’ Germans will wish each other ‘Einen guten Rutsch’, ‘a good slide’ into the New Year. Although it could be that 'rutsch' is based upon the Yiddish ‘rosch’ meaning ‘beginning’ so was originally wishes for a good beginning to the year.
However as the clock strikes twelve it becomes 10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1 ‘Prosit Neujahr!’, ‘Cheers to the New Year!’ and, even when out and about setting off the fireworks that welcome the New Year, there will be a bottle and glasses of champagne or sparkling wine close at hand. At once the greeting changes to become ‘Ein glueckliches neues Jahr’, A Happy New Year, and this is used over the next days on first meeting people in the new year.
In Germany traditions are enjoyed and treasured, and celebrations for 'Silvester und das neue Jahr' are no exception.
Several of those traditions can be traced to the Rauhnaechte Rough Nights rituals that pagan Germanic tribes practised for twelve days of winter from 25th December until 5th January. This coincided with what became New Year’s Eve, as well as linked to the twelve days of Christmas, when the Gregorian calendar was reformed in 1582 and December 31st made the last day of the year for most of Europe. Although this was not adopted by Protestant regions of Germany until 1700.
As the boundaries between spirit and real world were thought to be weakened during the twelve 'Rauhnaechte', so fires and loud noise were used to drive away evil spirits, while mystical abilities such as forecasting the future were believed possible.
Prediction remains a favourite old Silvester custom with Bleigiessen lead pouring, fortune telling with small pieces of lead melted in a spoon and poured into cold water, where they harden into forms important for the next year. A flower shape means new friendships in the coming year for example, a ring or circle is a wedding, a fish brings luck and a rocket signifies a journey into the unknown. As lead is poisonous producing the sets has recently been banned in Germany, and, although they are still available, 'Bleigiessen fans', which is most Germans, have for some years before the ban been urged to use pure wax, bees wax for example, or tin to continue with their annual tradition.
Another tradition rarely missed is a 14 minute black and white TV programme A Dinner For One, an obscure 1963 German production of a 1920’s British slapstick comedy which most Britons know nothing about but, subtitled and in English, is cult New Year’s Eve viewing in Germany.
With its catch phrases ‘The same procedure as last year, Madam?’, and ‘The same procedure as every year, James’, festivities come to a halt for eighteen minutes, while everyone watches a ninetieth birthday dinner party set in an old English mansion, where the four guests who used to attend every year have passed on. The Butler not only serves but takes the place of all of them, becoming steadily more ‘under the influence’ with each toast as the dinner proceeds and ‘the guest's’ wine disappears.
Feuerzangenbowle, Fire Tongs Punch which is a Gluehwein, mulled wine, but one with a definite 'fiery kick', joins sparkling wine as a favorite New Year's Eve drink, and the evening meal is usually shared with family or friends, eating in the company of those closest symbolised protection from demons in times gone by, and of course the ‘food’ also has its share of traditions.
There is the obligatory 'Lucky' jelly donut after midnight, but that is just one of many customs.
Leaving a little of everything eaten on the plate until midnight has passed should ensure a year with enough to eat, while some things should not find their way onto a New Years Eve or New Years Day table. Including anything that once had feathers. An old superstition states that the year's good luck and happiness will fly away from anyone who eats poultry, although the Rhinelanders ignore this as one of their favourite meals is Neuejahrsgans, which is much like St. Marten’s Goose.
Eating fish of any type, cooked any way, is a time honoured tradition and if it is Carp, 'Silvesterkarpfen', then one of the carp’s fish scales hidden in a wallet for the entire year is supposed to bring wealth to its owner, while scales hidden throughout home boost the bank balances of everyone who lives there.
Pea, Bean, Lentil or Carrot soup brings blessings and wealth in the New Year, as does eating Sauerkraut, the custom being that the guests wish each other as much happiness and money as there are strips of cabbage in the dish of Sauerkraut.
Nevertheless whether made from almond paste, chocolate or brass with a cent fixed upon it, or served as Schnitzel, Pork Roast, or sausages, (Wurstchen), it is the Glueck Sweine, a ‘Good Luck Pig’, in all its forms that is believed to bring most luck and good fortune in the coming year.
While the typical New Year gift of a four leaf clover plant is an overload of good luck symbols. Its pot is usually shared with a glueckspilz - a red toadstool with white spots - a small pig, a lucky ladybird, a horseshoe, and of course a chimney sweep to attract good luck while his broom sweeps away the old year.
However, unless the prospect of having nightmares and sleeping poorly for the entire year is something worth risking, it is apparently a very bad idea to get up late on New Years Day, besides it is time to start working on all those New Years resolutions.
New Year Fireworks in Dresden Click picture to enlarge, Bleigiessen, photographer Micha L. Riese, Dresdner Plum Chimney Sweep by DC/acf, courtesy de.Wikipedia
