(One day all children will disappear and we can make adults and it will be a good day)
At least you can hit adults with a truncheon. Anything in particularly unique in German New Years?
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
Not sure....we like to do table top grilling, but it is not a must.
I guess Bleigießen is a typical German thing (though I think Scandinavians know this one, too): You melt tiny pieces of metal (used to be lead until people realized how poisonous the stuff is) over a flame and then throw it into water. Once it is cooled down, you either try to see figures in the result, or you put it in front of a lamp and try to see some sort of shape in the shadow. And then you look up what it means...ie an Island predicts that you will travel aso.
There are a lot of good look symbols associated with Silvester, four-leaved clover, lucky pigs, chimney sweeps aso.
And there are typical German specialities connected to the time of the years...Eiserkuchen are actually also called "neujährchen" (little New Years), and Mutzenmandel are also popular around this time....
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
"The same procedures as every year, James." 
Not sure if this is only a german thing, though
edited 29th Dec '16 2:38:42 PM by 3of4
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Oh yes, this one...
Not quite, it's also popular in other countries, but interestingly not in the UK.
Well, it IS a German production, if I remember correctly.
Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.
It's a British theatre comedy sketch that was tweaked for German television. In the UK, it was never aimed at British television, only at theatre which is why it's relatively unknown here — theatre-goers know it, but television watchers don't.
The comedy is also of a certain period, so in the UK, the comedy is considered very dated.
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
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Copied from The Other Wiki about Dinner for One
, the comedy sketch that is a New Year's tradition to view in European countries. The premise revolves around a butler having to mime several "guests" at a dinner party being hosted by an elderly lady strongly implied to have dementia.
The 18-minute single-take black-and-white 1963 TV recording featuring British comedians Freddie Frinton and May Warden has become an integral component of the New Year's Eve schedule of several German television stations. Versions of the sketch are also shown by Danish and Swedish channels; it is a December 23 staple on Norwegian national television, and a cult television classic in Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Faroe Islands and Austria; on New Year's Eve 2003 alone, the sketch was broadcast 19 times (on various channels). As of 2005, the sketch had been repeated more than 230 times. It is known in other countries as well, including Switzerland, Luxembourg and South Africa. It has been broadcast on New Year's Eve in Australia on the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) station nationally since 1989.
I guess half of the fun is that even if you don't speak English, it is not hard to understand what is going on.
Ironically Frinton hated the Germans....
Dementia? I never got that one from the sketch. I mean, she is very aware that she is talking to her butler and not her friends. She is just very, very lonely....
edited 30th Dec '16 12:11:56 AM by Swanpride
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Hmm, maybe it's just me, but I'd think that anyone who'd require someone else to mime and act as their deceased friends at a "dinner" every year just might have some personal issues.
The sketch in question.
I took it always more of a sign of loneliness than dementia. I mean she does tell James "For me James, please" which I interprete as her knowing that it is all an illusion, but one she likes to uphold for this special day.
Also, I am surprised that they let the last part when James promises "to do his very best" past the censors these days?
edited 30th Dec '16 10:32:46 AM by Zarastro
Last time they tried to change something, they got lynched. Dinner For One is Serious Business.
Well, Germany always was a little bit less strict when it came to stuff like this.
Question: During the New Year Celebration someone mentioned that in a lot of countries, using firework yourself is actually forbidden, and that there are instead big fireworks created by the state. It that true? I mean, it would be kind of funny if this is less regulated and Germany of all places than elsewhere....
In Canada and the US that's definitely the case, though it generally varies by province/state, or even municipality. It ranges from total bans, seasonal limitations, restrictions in amounts, only shooting them off over lakes/rural areas, etc. At least here in Nova Scotia, unless you use them during a burn ban, or actually cause a fire, at most the cops show up and tell you to stop. Maybe a fine at the most.
edited 3rd Jan '17 3:02:07 AM by Rationalinsanity
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Well, here in Southern Switzerland it was forbidden, but because of wildfire hazard.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
The fire hazard is by far the most cited reason. Sometimes the use of explosives for terrorism or vandalism comes up, but that's not really an argument considering that bombs can be made from household cleaning products.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Causing freakouts over sourcing since 2018
Here in Malaysia, you must be a certified pyrotechnics expert working on an event in order to get your hands on something more potent than snappers or bomb bags (yes, that is apparently the actual name).
However, there is a massive black market for illegal fireworks, and law enforcement can't catch all of the smugglers, much less everyone using them.
I don't really recall the official reason for the ban, although the sheer amount of people (partially) blowing themselves up every time a religious festival comes around might have something to do with it.
I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot
The ban is likely a response of a fire at a fireworks factory back during the 80's or something as fireworks were banned after the incident.
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BBC: Germany sees 'overwhelming' sales of Hitler's Mein Kampf
Publisher Andreas Wirsching said "the figures overwhelmed us". He is director of the Institute of Contemporary History (If Z) in Munich.
But the sales are well below those of best-sellers in Germany. It is an academic edition, costing €58 (£49).
At the end of January the If Z will launch a sixth print run. The book contains critical notes by scholars.
Unlike the Nazi-era editions, the If Z's Mein Kampf (My Struggle) has a plain white cover - without a picture of Hitler. The swastika and other Nazi symbols are banned in Germany.
Mr Wirsching told the German news agency DPA that the If Z was planning a shorter, French-language edition. "But two-thirds of our commentaries will be translated" for it, he said. The first print run in Germany in 2016 was 4,000 copies.
The decision to republish the inflammatory book was criticised by Jewish groups. Mein Kampf was originally printed in 1925 - eight years before Hitler came to power. It sets out racist ideas that the Nazis put into practice later, including the denigration and oppression of Jews and Slavs.
The fact that the Nazi manifesto reached number one in Der Spiegel's non-fiction charts in April is cited as evidence that Adolf Hitler's propaganda is making a comeback in Germany. But the term "best-seller" does not necessarily mean very much. A quarter of all books sold in Germany are bought in the run-up to Christmas. At other times of the year it is possible to top listings with relatively few sales. Mein Kampf (My Struggle) is an expensive academic text, and is being bought by libraries, schools and history academics. For a German non-fiction book sales of 85,000 are not bad. But the figures don't indicate a runaway hit. The current biggest non-fiction seller is The Hidden Life of Trees, a book about the ecosystem of woodland, which has sold half a million copies so far.
Read Damien's analysis in full here.
After Nazi Germany was defeated in 1945, the Allied forces handed the copyright to the state of Bavaria. Under German law copyright lasts for 70 years. While the Bavarian regional government held the copyright, reprinting of the book was banned. But the copyright expired a year ago.
Mr Wirsching said he favoured "clever" teachers using the If Z edition in the classroom. He warned against "repeating the absurd 1950s discussion, when people said 'it was all Hitler's fault'." He said the If Z had obtained solid legal advice before republishing the book on a limited scale. And the scholarly edition was aimed partly at pre-empting any editions put out by Nazi sympathisers. "It would be irresponsible to just let this text spread arbitrarily," he told DPA.
I'd be interested in who the primary buyer group was, to be honest.
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
I'd guess its three-way split between:
- People who read it for study reasons (scholars, etc)
- Bile Fascination
- Right-wingers who get off on having it in their bookshelf
Oh, bother.
It's even more jarring since the book isn't even that well written either.
Disgusted, but not surprised
I worked in the library of a resistance memorial in Berlin for a few months - one of my colleagues called it one of the dullest books ever.
According to him, if you want to read some fucked up shit, read Rosenberg's stuff, not Mein Kampf.
edited 6th Jan '17 1:39:48 AM by DrunkenNordmann
Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
as I said, I suspect the right-wingers mainly buy it to show off
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the fireworks which go off early on the 31th are usually done by parents for their children before sending them to bed.