Happy New Year everyone! We hope you all had a great Christmas time as well as a memorable New Year's Eve ... But how do Germans actually celebrate this one night that separates 2014 from 2015? There are only little other events that are connected to such a variety of little traditions and customs like New Years Eve. For most of the people, it is a well-planned night that rises one's expectations to the maximum. And here are the top five traditions that make this night as special as it is:
1. Decorating. There are some items that represent luck in the new year. Most important is (lucky) clover that you can buy almost everywhere the weeks before New Year's, often decorated with little chimney sweapers in it. Little pigs represent luck and fortune during the next year as well. The decoration is placed on the tables, shelves, maybe outside ... Confetti and paper streamers complete the decoration.
2. Eating. Families and groups of friends have different traditions when it comes to food. Well-known is herring salad or egg salad and so-called "Berliner": ball-shaped fried dough with jam in it. There are other sweet bakery products made of the same dough that are very popular. People also love doing fondue - sticking little pieces of meat in broth or fat - or raclette. With raclette, you put different already cut food on tiny pans and eat them up on a raclette grill. Both are very social and can feed a large group of people.
3. Games. Only for New Year's Eve, people do "Bleigießen" (casting lead). Here, you heat up a small piece of metal (it used to be lead) on a little spoon over a candle. Once it is liquid, you quickly drop it into cold water. After this, you examine the little figures that were created because the metal got cold so quickly. Sometimes, you can see different figures like animals or things and can interpret how they might be connected to your upcoming year. There are also little books for explanations which symbols stands for what. Thinking of own interpretations is the most fun anyway though.
4. Countdown and fireworks. Close to twelve, bottles of sparkling wine or even champagne are opened. Then, there is normally a countdown and at twelve, everyone is hugging each other saying "Frohes Neues" which means Happy New Year. Some Germans love to have their own firework and light it up in the streets. There are strict restrictions though: You can only buy fireworks right before christmas and they can only contain small amounts of some chemical ingredients. Safety first!
5. Watching TV. There is one show that is very popular and is only watched once a year: on the 31th of December. It is called "Diner for one" and is a british short movie where a rich old lady and butler have dinner together. Since all of the lady's friends already died, the butler has to drink each and every drink they would have drank if they would still live. Obviously, the butler gets massively drunk and repeatedly stumbles over a certain fur that is lying on the ground. People know this movie by head yet still laughing about every scene.
I hope you got an impression of New Year's Eve in Germany - of course, there are tons of parties everywhere ... the most known might be the one in Berlin in front of the "Brandenburger Tor" but a lot of clubs, bars, restaurants and private people host parties all over Germany.
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