The first thing you need to know about German New Year’s is that we call New Year’s Eve Silvester. It refers to Pope Sylvester I (German spelling is Silvester) who died on December 31st, 335. In Switzerland, the last day of the year is called Altjahrtag or Altjahrstag (old year day). New Year’s Day in German is Neujahr, which means ‘new year’. There are many traditions associated with New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, some apply to all Germans, some are more regional. Here are ten things that most people in Germany do.
Wishing "einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr"
Wishing somebody ‘einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr‘ means literally that you wish somebody “a good slide into the new year“. It can be shortened to Guten Rutsch!, and in German-speaking Switzerland you’d say Rutsch guet übere! It is not entirely clear where the expression comes from but it started being used around 1900.
There are different explanations why rutschen, meaning ‘to slide‘, is associated with the new year. The first, often quoted possibility is that “Guten Rutsch” is a corruption of the Yiddish “Rosch ha schana tov“, which means “a good head (start) of the new year“. However, the Jewish new year was known to most German speakers as “Rausch haschono” or “Rauschoschone“, and it is a word that most people didn’t incorporate into their everyday language, unlike many other Yiddish words like “Schlamassel”, “Stuss”, or “zocken”. The Jewish New Year also doesn’t coincide with the Christian New Year.
The more likely explanation is that ‘rutschen‘ and its noun ‘der Rutsch‘ are used for the German word ‘reisen‘ (to travel) or ‘die Reise‘ (journey). We find references for this in Grimms Wörterbuch of 1854. In “Die Lustigen von Weimar“, Goethe tells of the various travels through the land and says “am Sonntag rutscht man auf das Land” (on Sunday, one takes a trip to the countryside).
Since people started sending the first greeting cards for the new year at the turn of the last century, we often find designs depicting people skiing down a slope or sledding ‘into the new year’.
Watching "Dinner for One"
“Dinner for One” or “The 90th Birthday” is a comedy sketch written by British author Lauri Wylie, and performed for the first time in London in 1934. The British comedians Freddie Frinton and May Warden starred as James and Miss Sophie as early as 1945 at British seaside resorts.
The German entertainer Peter Frankenfeld and the director Heinz Dunkhase saw the show in 1962 in Blackpool, and brought it to Germany. In July of 1963, Frinton and Warden performed their sketch in Frankenfeld’s live show, in English preceded by an introduction in German. (see video below)
After the recording it was shown occasionally on German TV until it gained a fixed spot in the New Year’s Eve TV program starting in 1972.
Since then, watching “Dinner for One” has become a New Year’s Eve tradition in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia, and the Baltic states. In Norway, it is broadcast on December 23rd. Over the last couple of decades, the sketch has gained popularity in Australia and South Africa. Interestingly, it is basically unknown in the UK where it originated.
The premise of the sketch is simple: Miss Sophie is turning 90 and wants to celebrate with her four friends, all of whom have passed. The butler James assumes the role of all four friends getting drunk really quickly when he has to toast Miss Sophie. The catchphrase “Same procedure as every year, James” (in English) is known to practically every German.
Bleigießen
Who doesn’t want to know what the new year brings? Other than reading your horoscope for the year, you can also tell your future by pouring hot lead into cold water, called Bleigießen in German. The shape or figure will tell you what the year has in store for you.
In Germany, you could buy sets of little clumps of lead, a spoon, and a booklet that would tell you the most common shapes and their meaning. However, since 2018 Bleigießen with actual lead has been forbidden, and people often use wax as an alternative, Wachsgießen.
If you don’t want to buy a kit, or you live somewhere where they are not available, you can easily do it with household items. All you need is candle wax or a crayon, a thin spoon to melt it in, a candle, and cold water. The shapes that you pour with wax are often flatter than the ones made of lead, so consider adding a little dish soap to the water to make your figurines a little bulkier.
Alternatively, you can pour cold dough into hot oil, Teiggießen. The advantage to this method is that you can eat your dough shapes.
Fondue or Raclette
Fondue and raclette are popular dinner choices for New Year’s Eve. Both are easy to prepare, require very little cooking, and can last however long you want. It’s really an ideal option for gatherings of friends and/or family, and especially on Silvester because you have to stay up until midnight anyway. Since it takes some time to ‘cook’ your food, you won’t fill up too fast and you have plenty of time for conversation.
Countdown
The last ten seconds before the new year starts, are traditionally counted down. This happens probably everywhere and isn’t especially unique to Germany. Many German TV stations air New Year’s Eve events and shows with music and reviews of the last year. Many radio stations play the top songs of the year. You can count along with them or do your own countdown.
Here is the countdown in German:
zehn – neun – acht – sieben – sechs – fünf – vier – drei – zwei – eins – Prosit Neujahr!
Champagne
Once the new year has started, you make a toast to it with, you guessed it, champagne or Sekt. While the photo below shows a clinking of the glasses (anstoßen), you shouldn’t really do that with champagne. When you clink the glasses the champagne will lose its bubbles which is quite important to the Sekt. You can just raise your glass to the others and nod (zuprosten), and when it’s Silvester you wish each other a happy new year.
However, if you do want to make some noise, make sure you hold the champagne flute at the bottom of the stem and clink the glass not all the way on the top, where it’s weakest, but a little below that. That should give you a nice ring.
Wishing "A happy new year"
After the countdown you can say “Prosit Neujahr” which can be translated with “Cheers New Year“. You can also say that when you raise your glasses. Other ways to wish everybody a happy new year are:
Frohes neues Jahr! or Frohes neues! for short. Alles Gute im neuen Jahr! (All the best in the new year) Ein glückliches 20..! (A happy 20..) Basically, you can say everything that wish to somebody: Glück (good luck), Erfolg (success), or Gesundheit (health).
Fireworks
To help with the good luck in the new year, people set off fireworks (Feuerwerk) and firecrackers (Knallkörper, Böller). The loud noises will scare all bad spirits away.
Many cities have professional fireworks, but most Germans buy their own rockets, firecrackers, and sparklers (though not in the Corona years). It’s perfectly legal to go to the store and buy a big assortment of fireworks to set them off at midnight. Conveniently, an empty champagne bottle is ideal for setting of fireworks rockets (Feuerwerksraketen).
Favorites for kids are Wunderkerzen (lit. wonder candles; sparklers) and Knallerbsen (lit. bang peas; bang snaps).
Germans spend over 100 million Euros for fireworks every year, though in 2020 it was only 20 million.
Good luck charms
While loud fireworks are used to keep bad spirits away, Germans have plenty of symbols and charms to attract good luck for the new year.
- Glücksklee – lucky clover, Iron Cross
- Schwein – pig
- Marienkäfer – ladybug
- Hufeisen – horseshoe
- Schornsteinfeger – chimney sweep
- Fliegenpilz – toadstool
- Glückspfennig – lucky penny
Specially for New Year’s, Iron Cross or lucky clover is sold in small pots, often decorated with a chimney sweep made from pipe cleaners. Glücksschweine made from marzipan are very popular to give as a New Year’s gift. Greeting cards and online images sport many of the good luck symbols. More about Glücksbringer in Germany here.
Berliner, Neujahrsbrezel, and Rollmops
Berliner, Krapfen, Pfannkuchen
On New Year’s Eve, you can see many Germans, especially in the North, flock to bakeries to buy Berliner (jelly filled donut). You might also hear the words Krapfen (West and South Germany) or Pfannkuchen (Berlin and surrounding areas) for these donuts.
Some people eat them at midnight, others – myself included – later on New Year’s Day. Why exactly Berliner are eaten on New Year’s Day is unclear. In many regions that celebrate Carnival, the deep-fried dough balls are eaten during the Carnival week before Lent starts, or at the beginning of Karneval on November 11th which also used to be the start of a fasting time before Christmas. But New Year’s Day really doesn’t fall into the “eat delicious food before you have to fast” time, so that’s not an explanation. Maybe the bakeries wanted to use up all the left-over ingredients from their Christmas baking. If you have the answer, please let me know.
Neujahrsbrezel
In parts of Swabia and in the Rhineland, you will find people eating Neujahrsbrezel, rather large sweet pretzels in New Year’s Day. In Baden (Swabia), children go visit their godparents to receive a pretzel and money. In the Rhineland, the big yeast dough pretzel, often with braided decorations, often comes from the bakery and is eaten for breakfast by the entire family. These pretzels can come with almond slices, filled with marzipan, or with sugar crystals. They protect against bad luck, hunger, and sickness.
Read more about sweet pretzels in Germany here.
Rollmops
While Neujahrsbrezel and Berliner are sweet treats, the Rollmops is hangover cure, though you obviously can enjoy the rolled pickled herring without a hangover.
If the salty fish really is the ideal Katerfrühstück (hangover breakfast) is not clear though. The salt is supposed to make a person thirsty and drink more thereby replenishing the body with the fluids it has lost to the alcohol the night before. But it seems this effect is too short-lived to actually make a difference. The best advice, so I’ve read, is to get some fresh air. Which isn’t surprising because ‘frische Luft‘ seems to function as a German remedy against many things.
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