Happy New Year! Frohes Neues Jahr! We tried to pack a lot of silly German traditions into our night...after a nice New Year's Eve dinner, and some
Knallbonbons (crackers, note the little chimney sweeps on them) we did tried our hand at
Bleigießen, or "melting lead" to read our fortunes. We watched the fireworks in the neighborhood, lit sparklers (
Wunderkerzen) and ate
Pfannkuchen. Hopefully 2012 will be a lucky one!
Bleigießen was interesting. You have these thin pieces of lead shaped like Sekt or a heart or a clock, put them on the metal spoon and melt them over a candle. You pour the melted lead into cold water and pull out the cooled lead. The results are a bit like a Rorschach test...see if you can read our fortunes from the below results:
At midnight, we just hit the Berlin streets. We were hoping to go to Tempelhof park, but it was closed. From the edge, we could still get a view of the fireworks going off all across the horizon. Germans don't have Fourth of July (obviously...) so this is their chance to play with fire. And it seems like people are more into setting off their own rather than going to watch one public firework display. Everywhere we could see, fireworks were going off. Between the blocks of houses, in the streets, from people's balconies...it was loud, smoky, and colorful. Happy New Year!
So interesting.... I had not heard of that! Is it really lead? Love the crackers with the chimney sweep.
ReplyDeleteWas there a crown in your cracker?
ReplyDeletehaha, yes it's really lead...Elisabeth was very concerned about us. Reminded me of how Dad used to play with mercury as a schoolboy. :) We didn't eat it or anything! No crown in the cracker...must just be a British thing?
ReplyDelete