On December 31st, Germans wish each other "einen guten Rutsch!" "Rutsch" is the word for "slide" in German, so they are wishing each other a good slide into the new year. I like that!
At midnight, they say "Prosit Neujahr" as they clink glasses to toast the start of the new year.
On January 1st, it is "Ein gutes neues Jahr (Happy New Year!)."
Bakeries sell a special "Neujahrs Brezel" (pretzel) on the days leading up to New Year's Day. These pretzels are different from the standard pretzel one sees year round in German bakeries. They are huge! They have both sweet and buttery varieties. Jim bought just a piece of the sweet Neujahrs Brezel for us since we never could have finished the whole thing! It tasted like coffee cake. It looked like this in the bakery:
He did get us an entire Weihnachts (Christmas) Brezel though. Check it out!
Good thing Papa and Granny are here to help us eat all these pretzels!
We had heard that there are amazing fireworks displays on New Year's Eve here around Stuttgart. There are not many organized fireworks shows like there are on July 4th in the US, rather individuals buy fireworks (they even had them at our local grocery store!) and set them off themselves. We were not disappointed--at midnight everyone started setting off their fireworks and we had the most amazing view right from our house!! It went on for 30-45 minutes and was so loud!! Even our next door neighbor was setting them off from his balcony! It was quite a show...we'll never have to go anywhere on New Year's Eve because we can see such a good show from home. Jim took a video...I will try to upload it later.
Wishing you and your families a happy and healthy New Year! Keep in touch!
It looks huge....and delicious!
ReplyDeleteMmmm ... I agree, that big hunk of carb-y goodness looks very tasty! Happy New Year to all of you! So happy to see that your parents were out for the holiday - always such jetsetters, it's awesome ;-)
ReplyDeleteWow, pretzels bigger than your head!
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