Happy New Year everyone! I had a great time in Austria for New Years Eve, or Silvester as it is called in German. It was a small affair, a dinner party of just a few people, but I learned all about Austrian Silvester traditions. For starters, Silvester is very much about luck. Good luck, bad luck, active luck, passive luck, pot luck, you name it. The symbols/items that are considered lucky are four leaf clovers and horseshoes, which are lucky in many countries, ladybugs which I think might be considered lucky in the US, pigs, mushrooms and chimney sweeps. In fact, chimney sweeps are so lucky that if you see one on New Years Eve, you are supposed to take some of his soot and rub it on your face. That doesn't seem so lucky for one's complexion...It's also customary to give little lucky gifts to ones friends and family, and usually one or all of the previously mentioned items are involved. Lisa bought little plants with little chimney sweeps covered in bugs, pigs, mushrooms and clovers stuck in the dirt. Again, I feel like the chimney sweep is getting the short end of the stick. There is also a tradition of melting lead figurines and dropping them into cold water to find out what kind of luck you will have. The figurines are of course in the shape of mushrooms, pigs, etc. but they are hollow so they melt into a lead puddle fairly quickly. When dropped into a bowl of cold water, the lead solidifies instantly and the resulting shape tells your fortune. The shapes that are listed on the box present great fortune for the new year, but unfortunately the shapes are never even close. It's very difficult to get a splash of liquid lead to resemble a house, cat, tent or ladder. Most of our party ended up with a butterfly after a napalm attack. Not so lucky.
Of course, all of these lucky traditions are necessary precautions because there are plenty of things that can bring you bad luck. It ranges from washing clothes on Silvester to the color of your underwear. I didn't learn everything that was considered unlucky, but you could be tripped up pretty easily, so I suppose it's important to have lucky things to protect you.
Anyway, enough about luck. I had a lovely time in Baden, Lisa's hometown, and the fireworks were quite nice. There were a lot of people downtown, and there was a lot of excitement in the air. The show was pretty good too.
On New Years day we visited with her grandparents, who are the kindest people I have ever met. They don't speak a word of English, but they are extremely patient with me, and we managed to communicate very well. Her whole family was very sweet and welcoming, and I'm very lucky to have spent the holidays with them. It was strange, and I certainly felt the pangs of homesickness at times, but I'll look back on this holiday season with a lot of fond memories.
I made it home safely after a long travel delay, which was lengthened significantly by snowy weather. I've had a nice week in Kassel to catch up on cleaning, paper writing, and goofing off with Christian and Christine. Excellent uses of my time.I hope you are all enjoying the new decade, and all the best for 2010!
Bis dann,
Amy
