What Are You Doing for New Year's Eve?

[Front-Ranger]

I'm babysitting my one-year-old grandson, and I'm planning to watch a DVD if he'll allow it. In previous years, I've always watched the movie Orlando, but I'm thinking of renting something for tonight. What would you suggest?

[Jeff Wrangler]

I'm going to the Philadelphia Orchestra New Year's concert. 

Then I'm expected to party with the friends with whom I'm going to the concert (all neighbors in my building), I'm invited to a party by other neighbors in my building, and I'd really like to see my buddies at my usual watering hole, who are all good friends to me, not just people who serve me liquor in exchange for money. I don't know what I'm going to do. 

[Jeff Wrangler]

I'm babysitting my one-year-old grandson, and I'm planning to watch a DVD if he'll allow it. In previous years, I've always watched the movie Orlando, but I'm thinking of renting something for tonight. What would you suggest?

After the Thin Man, with William Powell and Myrna Loy, which takes place over a New Year's holiday.

[Penthesilea]

I like the Thin Man movies, and I love the name "Myrna Loy". It sounds good to my ears.

Have fun, Jeff, and good luck with the little one, Lee!


Jens and Helen (middle child) are on their way to see the musical Mamma Mia on stage. I deliberately chose the Sylvester show and hope it will be really special for them.
They should return around 11PM, just in time to go into the new year with the rest of the family.
My daughter and her boyfriend had plans to party, but that fell through on short notice. They could have gone elsewhere, but the BF said he'd rather spend the night with her family. That's a nice compliment, and we also like to have him around. He's a very sweet guy; reminds me of Jens at the same age (but I'd never tell that my daughter, lol ).

So, instead of being just two (Oliver and me), we'll be four people for the evening, and later six. We'll have cheese fondue and play board games.

I hope everyone on BetterMost has good plans to look forward to for tonight! Guten Rutsch!

[Sophia]

While I am deciding if it is proper to do laundry on new years eve....I enjoying the hype from Sydney.


[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEFjdNjXzbs[/youtube]

[Jeff Wrangler]

While I am deciding if it is proper to do laundry on new years eve....I enjoying the hype from Sydney.

It might be auspicious to begin the new year with clean clothes. 

[southendmd]

Chrissi, sounds like a fun evening. 

One question:  what is the "Sylvester show" and how does it relate to Mama Mia?

[CellarDweller]

dinner and drinks with friends at their house.

[Penthesilea]

Chrissi, sounds like a fun evening.  

One question:  what is the "Sylvester show" and how does it relate to Mama Mia?

It's the show taking place on Sylvester. You call it New Year's Eve, we call it Sylvester.

It doesn't have anything to do with Mamma Mia in the first place, but since it's a special day many shows in theaters, circusses (? what's the plural of circus?) etc do something special for their guests. Could be a free glass of sparkling wine, some extra encores, music playing and the crew and guests dancing together, whatever. Kind of a little after-show. But maybe there'll be nothing special, there's no way to say. So I'm just hoping they will make it a really special night tonight, that's why I chose this date. The tickets were a Christmas gift from me to Jens and Helen. Jens likes Abba, Helen always wanted to see a musical, and everyone I ever spoke to was outright raving about Mamma Mia, so I was pretty happy with my idea.

[southendmd]

Thanks, Chrissi.  Guten Rutsch!  From "The Local", everything you ever wanted to know about New Year in Germany:


No your friend isn't planning to ring in the New Year with someone named Sylvester instead of you. Silvester is the German name for New Year's Eve – owing to the fourth century Pope Sylvester I. Eventually made a saint by the Catholic Church, his feast day is observed on December 31.

St. Sylvester’s day became associated with New Year's Eve with the reform of the Gregorian calendar in 1582, when the last day of the year was fixed at December 31. But despite the holiday's Christian name, many German New Year's traditions can be traced back to the pagan Rauhnächte practices of heathen Germanic tribes, which took place at the end of December and beginning of January.

Instead of recognizing a single day as the winter solstice, the Germanic tribes observed twelve Rauhnächte – hairy nights, so called due to the furry forms of the deep winter demons – or Rauchnächte – smoky nights, due to the practice of smoking the spirits out of one’s house on January 5. Bringing very little sun to the northern regions, the twelve Rauhnächte were considered days outside of time, when the solar and lunar years were allowed to re-synchronise. Silvester took place right in the middle of the twelve Rauhnächte and was the night of the god Wotan’s wild hunt, a time of particular commotion and celebration.

As in many other countries, the Germans celebrate Silvester with fireworks, champagne, and boisterous social gatherings. Making noise is key: the ruckus of fireworks, firecrackers, drums, whip-cracking and banging kitchen utensils has been driving away evil winter spirits since the days of the Germanic Teutons. One of the most famous German firework displays takes place at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Private celebrations with Böllern (firecrackers) are also common.

Besides being a fun spectacle, the light of pyrotechnic displays also provides a surrogate sun during the dark Silvester night. Suffering the winter bleakness in their northern regions more than anyone, the Teutons feared that the sun, which they thought of as a wheel that rolled around the earth, was slowing to a stop during the darkest days of winter. Perhaps as a sign of protest, they lit wooden wheels on fire and sent them rolling down mountains and clubbed trees with flaming cudgels. These practices are likely forerunners to the Silvester firework tradition.

The belief that the sun was slowing to a stop also led to the German tradition of doing no work on New Year’s Eve: everything should stand just as still on earth. Above all no one should do any laundry, because the god Wotan made his rounds with his army of devils for a wild hunt during Silvester and would be terribly angry if he got caught in any clotheslines.

Because the twelve Rauhnächte – now associated with the twelve days of Christmas made famous by the partridge in a pear tree – were days outside of time, all manner of supernatural events were possible. Spirits of all sorts charged through the night, either embodying the horror of winter or chasing it away. These figures still emerge in the Perchtenläufen of the Alpine areas of Germany, when troll-like forms cavort about with bells to drive away winter. Perchtenläufen take place in different Alpine cities between Advent and January 5, the last of the Rauhnächte.

The Rauhnächte were also a time when the future for the New Year could be divined. Silvester in Germany still calls for oracle traditions, which often take the form of party games. Bleigießen (lead pouring) is the most popular Silvester fortune-telling tradition. Party-goers melt small lead forms with a candle in an old spoon and pour them into cold water. The lead hardens into a shape that supposedly bears a certain meaning for the New Year. An eagle, for example, indicates career success, while a flower foretells that new friendships will develop.

Other oracle traditions on Silvester include swinging a pendulous object, such as a necklace or watch, and asking it a yes-or-no question. If the pendulum swings in a circle, the answer is “yes,” if it swings vertically, the answer is “no,” and if it swings horizontally, the answer is uncertain. Bibelstechen involves opening the Bible to a random page, closing one’s eyes and pointing to a random verse. The verse should provide some information or advice for the coming year.

Those who stay home on Silvester in Germany are likely to be watching the 1963 TV recording of the British comedy sketch “Dinner for one”. The programme is an indispensable German New Year's tradition since 1972 and holds the Guinness record for being the most frequently repeated TV show in history.

Anyone in front of the telly will probably be wolfing down jelly doughnuts too. But watch out! At some point some Teutonic jokester thought it would be funny to put mustard in one or two of the Pfannkuchen as a funny surprise for his New Year's party guests.

For those who go out on Silvester, good luck charms and New Year’s greetings are often exchanged. Acquaintances may give good luck charms to each other in the form of ladybugs, four-leaf clovers, horseshoes and pigs. The phrase Guten Rutsch! is another common Silvester greeting. While many Germans now use it to wish someone a good “slide” into the new year, the word Rutsch more likely comes from the Yiddish word Rosch – which means beginning or head.

So to have a Guten Rutsch! is simply to have a good start to the New Year!

http://www.thelocal.de/20121231/16425