People brag about New Year's Eve in NYC, Sydney, and Edinburgh. The fireworks are great, timed with live music from whatever band or singer is popular at the time. People sing Auld Lang Syne without knowing any of the words. Champagne corks pop everywhere to toast to the new year. People kiss their loved ones on camera. It's all amazing and festive and wonderful because it's televised. People everywhere watch Times Square or the Sydney Harbor's fireworks because of their grand production. Well, my friends, these major cities may have great televised programs to watch for New Year's Eve, but Berlin's Silvester far outranks anything that I have ever seen. Why? Because there no rules, no fire codes, and no one getting in one's way of having a good time.
Jack and I spent our Silvester with our "family away from home," a couple that we met from the US who we have spent the holidays with. Since their apartment is a nice 20-30ish minute walk, Jack and I decided to walk. However, we did not realize that you have to walk through a war zone to get anywhere outside. You see, Germany does not seem to have any kind of firework regulations whatsoever. You can get the big ones that you see on TV, or small little poppers. And, you can set them off anywhere at any time. They would set them off right in front of you on the sidewalks, shooting them in every which way from their balconies, or right in the middle of the roads. The booms and bangs and flashing lights made one think that they were in a war, which, being in Berlin, is somewhat creepy.
We safely made it to our friend's home, where we each made something for dinner. I made a yummy Curried Squash Quinoa Soup, and our friends made an amazing middle eastern spread. All the while, fireworks were going off, not all at once, but enough for our eyebrows to rise and laugh in shock. After some beer, wine, and champagne, the clock read 11:58, and we put on our coats and went onto the balcony. That's when all hell broke loose.
Think of the finale of any firework show, but keep it going for 45 minutes. People were setting off fireworks like crazy, and they were right in our faces. There were times that we felt the need to duck because they were right over our heads! Not just dinky fireworks...I'm talking the ones that shoot high in the sky and when it goes off, is the big colorful ones that you see on TV. There were sparklers, noise makers, rockets, among many others. It. Was. Awesome! How cars were still driving, I have no idea.
This is a video that we found on youtube from 2012 to give you a sense of the chaos:
After about 45 minutes, it started to die down, and we went inside. A German tradition for the new year is to buy "jelly" filled doughnuts. Each person gets a doughnut, but the kicker is, is that one is filled with mustard. The person who gets the one filled with mustard supposedly has good luck for the year. Our friends bought some of these doughnuts, though the mustard ones were sold out. We had to find the Whisky filled one. After mixing them all up, we each grabbed one. It took us a while to figure out which one was whisky filled, but it turns out that it was mine! Good luck to me :)
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| Debris: New Year's Day |
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| Debris: New Year's Day |
One last German tradition that Jack and I took part in and hope to bring back with us to the US is watching a video called "Dinner for One. This is a video that supposedly, every German knows and can quote verbatim. It's an English video about an old, wealthy, senile, woman, who has outlived all of her friends. Every year, on her birthday, she has a get-together with her "friends". Her butler, kind as he is, impersonates all of this woman's friends in this comedy routine. If you have some time today, I suggest watching it!
From Jack and myself, we hope that you all had a safe Silvester, and have a Happy 2014!!!!!!!!!!
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