Prosit Neujahr!

After my adventure in the Saxon Switzerland and the move across town to a new apartment right after Christmas, I was not feeling very ambitious about New Year's Eve.  So I almost didn't accept my roommate's invitation to a small party with some of her friends (whom I've met).  However, I'm glad I did: we had a stereotypical but very fun German "Silvester."

Some background: despite years of German language and culture education, I had no idea that New Year's Eve is known as "Silvester" here.  It was pretty easy to figure out from the posters advertising parties and concerts on 31 December; but it turns out my German hosts didn't even know how the day got its name.  When I asked about it, we learned from Google that the last day of the year is the feast day for Saint Sylvester, the fourth-century pope whose tenure saw the Council of Nicaea and Emperor Constantine's big building projects, notably the Basilica of St. Peter's in the Vatican.  As someone mentioned, there was very little to do with saints yesterday...

This snapshot doesn't do justice to the blue flames.

There were just five of us plus my roommate's six-year-old daughter at our party.  The evening started a little after 7pm in the kitchen.  I made guacamole from the avocados in the fruit basket DH got me for Christmas, and my roommate skewered some pan-fried ham and prunes (surprisingly delicious).  There was also cheese, olives, deviled eggs, flat bread, and Greek chicken.  But that was just ballast for the main attraction: a Feuerzangenbowle.  This party drink begins with a warm red-wine sangria.  Then you soak a sugar loaf with rum, light the rum on fire, and, let the sugar melt into the pot, sweetening it.  I knew what a Feuerzangebowle was because in a German humor class in college, we watched the 1944 comedy of the same name whose first scene involves a large one of these.  But I had never made one before.  Ours involved a little last-minute DIY excitement: my roomie had to construct a rest for the sugar loaf out of wire while the wine was heating on the stove. To the left you can see the final result.  I found the punch strong but tasty.

The next "Projekt" was Bleigiesserei, or lead pouring, in which a small amount of lead is melted in a spoon held over a candle (right) and then dumped into a bucket of cold water, where it hardens.  You are supposed to be able to tell your fortune for the coming year in the shape(s) that result.  This Sylvester tradition I had recently read about, because the one really helpful entry in the farmer's journal I transcribed from the 1920s and 1930s is about the family's celebration on New Year's Eve 1929.  Farming during Weimar was difficult because of weather misfortunes and the precarious financial situation, so this entry stands out for its warmth and obvious happiness.  After describing the dinner his daughter, fresh from Home-Ec School had cooked (a win for my dissertation!), Walter Lohs lists the results of their Bleigiesserei: his wife a zeppelin, his son something between a devil and a black cat, his daughter two frogs, him an owl and a flute with stag's antlers, one guest a bouquet of flowers and a swallow's nest, and the other something unintelligible.  We poured a tadpole (new beginnings, evolution); a witch flying on a broomstick and a child (travel); a swan carrying a ring (marriage?); either a dolphin leaping out of the water or a fairy flying above two layers of earth (achievement); and one moth wing, a leaf boat, and a small egg on fire.  Can you guess which was mine?  (Answer below!)

Then is was time to watch "Dinner for One," or "Der 90. Geburtstag," an 11-minute English-language comedy sketch that involves a delusional old lady, her comedic butler, and lots and lots of alcohol.  Never shown on either British or American tv, it has been a New Year's classic in many parts of Europe and also South Africa for about 40 years.  (The link above is a short history of this quirky tradition).  Critically speaking, I suppose it doesn't rank up there with Monty Python or "Are You Being Served?", but after a couple of rounds of Feuerzangenbowle...

At this point it was 11:30pm and time to light the fire on the balcony and watch the fireworks.  Fireworks are legal here, and Dresdners make the most of the chance to celebrate and destroy stuff.*  I saw home footage from last year: hundreds and hundreds of people crowd the plazas and the bridges and general mayhem ensues.  You could hear regular "bangs" from about 8pm, but with half an hour to go the noise became constant.  We huddled on our balcony and cheered our thanks to the group in the next courtyard for the bottle rockets and sparkler showers they set off.  Finally, at midnight we toasted each other with champagne and caught glimpses of the city's firework display over the Elbe.  The steady explosions began to drop off after about 12:30.  All the fireworks really made it feel like the celebration was an event.

What was the first thing you did in 2011?  Ours was the last "Projekt" of the night: fresh fruit and chocolate fondue.  Lecker!  It was a delicious and convivial way to begin the new year.  As we rutschen (slide) into 2011, may you find health, happiness, and adventures.

What do you think it is?

*--As I walked home this morning, I observed said destruction: a pane of glass from a telephone booth and most of the sheets of glass of a tram stop!