1 January 2011 - Silvester in Frankfurt

Tonight was my first opportunity to celebrate Silvester (New Year's Eve) in Germany. It is a bit different from the parties and other celebrations I have attended in the US, including the ball drop in Times Square in New York in frigid cold weather. Here, or at least in Frankfurt, there is less of a countdown atmosphere and more emphasis on, well, other things.

First, I did a bit of research on why it is called Silvester. I have only come up with a partial answer, which dates back to Pope Sylvester 1 in the 4th century, whose feast day is 31 December. Apparently, the day became associated with New Year's Eve in 1582 when the Gregorian calendar was updated and the last day became 31 December. Or something like that. (This does not, of course, explain the different spelling.) That said, however, some of the traditions celebrated by Germans can apparently be traced back to some pagan practices of Germanic tribes that also occurred at the end of the year. If you want some deep history, there is a pretty good summary at http://www.thelocal.de/society/20091231-16425.html.

One of the traditions I have heard about is not quite so old, but is perhaps even more fascinating than some of the pagan traditions. And that is the viewing of a play titled, "Dinner for One." The play is a British play from the 20s and is apparently not very popular in the UK itself, but has become something of a holiday cult elsewhere. It is one of the few clips that is played without German voiceovers, in fact. A black and white version from the early 1960s appears to be the definitive version and it's relatively short (you can view it on YouTube), only about 10 minutes. As far as I can tell, an old woman invites four of her friends to dinner, but apparently they have all died, so her butler plays their parts, including drinking the wine that comes with each course, so he becomes increasingly inebriated. That's pretty much it. Oh, and references to, "same procedure as last year." What is interesting is that this is not only a German classic now. A Norwegian friend said that it is also popular there, though they watch it on 23 December and stole the tradition from the Swedes. Who knew? Anyway, more information on the play if you're now hopelessly intrigued is available at Wikipedia (where else?) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_for_one.

Another tradition is fireworks. This dates back to some of the pagan practices and the Teutons freaking out about the sun during the winter and also relates to some pagan practices related to noise. So when my neighbors invited me to dinner (for more than one) and then fireworks at the river, I assumed that the city of Frankfurt had a big fireworks show each year. Not so much. Essentially, it is a free-for-all with people showing up and setting off their fireworks at random. This began a bit before midnight and continued in earnest for a good half hour into the new year. And these were pretty big fireworks, not just sparklers and things like that. I'm not sure where they buy these, but everyone seemed to have them. No regulation whatsoever in the use of said fireworks. We hung back a bit from the river under a tree and were still alarmed at times by what people were doing and how the fireworks were being lit and set off. But it was truly amazing. Something about the randomness and so many people setting off so many fireworks at the same time made for a near continuous "finale" of fireworks.

Of course, no German celebration would be complete without consumption of alcoholic beverages. I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not, but apparently open containers are not an issue here. Sometimes during the summer (especially for things like bachelor parties) you see people wandering around with an entire bottle of wine or prosecco just drinking from it on the streets, and of course consumption of beer from glass bottles. No, not even in a brown paper bag. It takes some getting used to. Tonight was this taken to a higher level, with people really trashed and walking around still drinking and yes, still lighting fireworks. This would be a recipe for disaster and a lot of litigation in the US, but somehow it seems to work here. I should, in all fairness, note that our merry band did bring a bottle of prosecco and some cassis syrup for some New Year's Eve Kir Royale action. But we most assuredly did not drink from the bottle!

A few other minor differences from the US. In the US, there tends to be a bit more sparkling and bling involved, generally and in attire. Um, I was "overblinged" this evening. It is apparently a bit more casual here. Perhaps there are more formal events, though. The other thing that I find extremely charming is the tendency of people to text greetings shortly after the new year. I love this. There is nothing more charming than getting texts from my peeps while standing by the river in the smoke-filled air watching fireworks by drunken strangers. Okay, I guess you have to be there.

Meanwhile, it is past 2:00 AM and people are still setting off fireworks in my neighborhood.

If I haven't said it before, I love Germany. Love it, love it, love it!