Author Topic: What Are You Doing for New Year's Eve?  (Read 278311 times)

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: What Are You Doing for New Year's Eve?
« Reply #240 on: December 31, 2013, 01:17:31 pm »
It's the show taking place on Sylvester. You call it New Year's Eve, we call it Sylvester. ;D

How very ... medieval.

Today is the feast day of St. Sylvester:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Sylvester_I

Note this in particular:

"In the West, the liturgical feast of Saint Sylvester is on 31 December, the day of his burial in the Catacomb of Priscilla.[5] This is the last day in the year and, accordingly, in German-speaking countries and in some others close to them, New Year's Eve is known as Silvester. In other countries too, the day is usually referred to as Saint Sylvester's Day or the Feast of Saint Sylvester."
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline southendmd

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Re: What Are You Doing for New Year's Eve?
« Reply #241 on: December 31, 2013, 01:41:31 pm »
I was thinking of this fellow:


Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: What Are You Doing for New Year's Eve?
« Reply #242 on: December 31, 2013, 01:49:08 pm »
While I am deciding if it is proper to do laundry on new years eve.

Apparently you'd better not. Wotan will be very angry with you if he gets tangled up in your clothesline.  :-\
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline CellarDweller

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Re: What Are You Doing for New Year's Eve?
« Reply #243 on: December 31, 2013, 01:54:35 pm »
lmao!

Paul, I was about to post a picture of him too!


Tell him when l come up to him and ask to play the record, l'm gonna say: ''Voulez-vous jouer ce disque?''
'Voulez-vous, will you kiss my dick?'
Will you play my record? One-track mind!

Offline brianr

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Re: What Are You Doing for New Year's Eve?
« Reply #244 on: December 31, 2013, 01:56:16 pm »
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]
Thanks for this, usual fireworks in my birth city. I only ever saw them once live from my Mother's balcony on NYE 1999. I use to go to bed and set the alarm to watch them on TV.  As I hate crowds I never went into the city.
As usual I went to bed about 9.30pm. Woke at midnight when someone nearby set off a few fireworks  then woke again a little after 2am and thought it is New Year in Sydney.
It is now approaching 7am here in Dunedin so

Happy New Year Everybody

Offline southendmd

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Re: What Are You Doing for New Year's Eve?
« Reply #245 on: December 31, 2013, 02:18:15 pm »
lmao!

Paul, I was about to post a picture of him too!

I actually saw Sylvester in concert in the late 80s. He was terrific.  I'll never forget a line he said:

"Sometimes, I wake up feeling so fabulous, I don't know what to do with myself."

Offline Penthesilea

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Re: What Are You Doing for New Year's Eve?
« Reply #246 on: December 31, 2013, 02:26:37 pm »
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




He he. How enlightning! Yes, we also do Bleigießen (lead pouring) later. And pretty sure we'll watch Dinner for One again. I mean, it's Sylvester, we have to!  :laugh:

Re laundry: I've learned that you aren't allowed to do laundry between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day. Brings bad luck if you do. This year however, I did some laundry during that time. But not today! So hopefully Wotan will be merciful. ;) :laugh:


How very ... medieval.


Yes. ;D


I was thinking of this fellow:


Never heard of him before, but I like the quote Paul posted. :)

Offline Penthesilea

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Re: What Are You Doing for New Year's Eve?
« Reply #247 on: December 31, 2013, 02:28:30 pm »
Thanks for this, usual fireworks in my birth city. I only ever saw them once live from my Mother's balcony on NYE 1999. I use to go to bed and set the alarm to watch them on TV.  As I hate crowds I never went into the city.
As usual I went to bed about 9.30pm. Woke at midnight when someone nearby set off a few fireworks  then woke again a little after 2am and thought it is New Year in Sydney.
It is now approaching 7am here in Dunedin so

Happy New Year Everybody


Here they are, greetings from 2014 - from the future! :D
Feels almost like time travel, eh? ;)

Happy New Year, Brian.

Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: What Are You Doing for New Year's Eve?
« Reply #248 on: December 31, 2013, 05:40:04 pm »
In about 30 minutes I am going to start consuming alcohol and if I see the ball drop I see it and if I don't, I don't.

Happy New Year!
"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: What Are You Doing for New Year's Eve?
« Reply #249 on: December 31, 2013, 06:59:59 pm »
Sounds like some high-class entertainment, Tru. Enjoy! Me, I'm off for my all-night date with a cowboy name of Charlie, who's one year old. Yee-haw!
"chewing gum and duct tape"