New Year's Traditions in Germany

Happy New Year!
Are you all still recovering from a crazy NY in Berlin? OMG – have to say it was pretty wild here – I’m surprised there are any fireworks left in the whole country – no wonder so many people go to Poland to get them 😉
It was our first NY here in Germany and we enjoyed the experience very much. We grabbed some German friends and they taught us some fun New Year German traditions!
Bleigießen
Our friends brought over a little set for Bleigießen (lead-melting). You get a random lead object which you melt over a candle on a spoon. Lead has such a low melting temperature that the object melts quite quickly and you are left with a liquid blob on your spoon.
This you then chuck into a bowl of cold water, which hardens the lead immediately. You get some really odd shapes emerge and these will tell you what the following year has in store for you. You hold the object into the light against a plain wall and look at the shadows it produces.
There are many websites dedicated to defining what you might see in the shadows, from flowers and shoes to a knife and fork. We saw all kinds of fun images and my future for 2015 is apparently a bird and an embyro… I’m sure you can guess what that means – eeep! Jason got an alien… haha!
And here is the poem to go alongside the custom (it’s only in German – sorry)
In der Silvester-Nacht
wird das Blei zum Schmelzen gebracht.
Es wird gekippt in Wasser, kalt und klar;
rate, was stellen die Figuren dar?
Schau sie an, so wie sie sind;
rätst die Gestalt du nicht geschwind.
Halt sie hinters Licht,
das Schattenbild dir mehr verspricht.
Kommt es dir nicht in den Sinn,
schau auf dieses Büchlein hin.
Es sagt dir frank und frei,
so allerlei…!
Doughnuts
Well, I’ve never needed an excuse to eat doughnuts and I have to say I can eat a LOT of them, so I was delighted when our friend brought round a huge pile of assorted homemade doughnuts for New Year. Apparently, you fill them all with delicious jam and then one “lucky” doughnut is chosen and filled with mustard instead. A comical practical joke apparently, but I don’t think I would have found it funny if I had bitten into that one…

Fireworks
O-M-G. They started practicing on the 29th. Then from around 6pm on New Year’s Eve it was non-stop. Bang Bang Bang was all you could hear. This escalated more and more until suddenly it was midnight and everyone left their houses and came onto the streets to set off their own fireworks. We grabbed a load of mini fireworks and sparklers and copious amounts of champagne and joined in!
Elderly were partying alongside tiny children in what I can only describe as a war-zone. Teenagers having “fun” would aim their firework rockets at passing cars and people on balconies. We had to run at times not to get hit. It felt dangerous but also ridiculously fun and there were pretty things to look at absolutely everywhere.

The bangs went on long into the night and the next day Berlin was covered in rubbish. I have to agree with my friend: Berlin is crazy at New Year but there is no where I’d rather be…