Hi!
I originally wanted to write something about the trick fountains in Salzburg but since it is Winter and 2021 is coming up, I thought why not tell you more about what we do on New year's Eve instead?
First things first, here are some interesting facts about New Year's Eve celebrations in Austria or as we call it; Silvester:
- We gift little good-luck charms and trinkets to our friends
- Bleigießen, aka Fortune-telling, Austrian-style. We basically melt lead or tin in a spoon over a candle and then pour it into a bowl of cold water and the resulting form of the lead is used to predict what the next year will hold for us. A broken shape for example could mean misfortune or a ship something with traveling and a horse points towards a new car.
- We eat Raclette or Fondue
- We make some punch (for example red wine mixed with orange juice or cinnamon, there are many other variants of punch out there too)
- At 1200 am we play the traditional Donauwalzer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENETOpNpIiI
- We say Guten Rutsch! or Frohes Neues Jahr and hug and kiss our fellow party guests, and then enjoy the fireworks displays
Unfortunately, almost none of this is possible due to Covid this year, there won't even be fireworks.
But I will try to stay positive and hope that I can celebrate the new year 2022 with my friends again.
Take care, stay safe,
Van
