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| Sylvester the cat: not responsible for the new year |
When I think about the name of the holiday, I immediately picture this guy:
Apparently he has nothing to do with it. New Year's Eve is called Silvester in Germany in honor of the feast day of 4th century pope St Silvester, which is on Dec. 31st. I doubt that most Germans know this, and I just learned by looking it up on the internet (so it must be true).
I have yet to be in Germany for Silvester, but I know a little about how it's celebrated. There are two main components: fireworks and Dinner for One. In a country that has no Fourth of July and where the temperatures aren't painfully cold in December, Silvester is the big day for do-it-yourself fireworks. You can only buy them in stores during the week between Christmas and New Year's. So all year, Germans are relatively calm and safe, until the one night that they can blow things up... I've heard it's a good show.
The real New Year's show, however, is on TV and it's called Dinner for One. The dialogue is in English, tand Germans find it incredibly funny for no reason that is discernible to foreigners. I've seen it three times now, and keep waiting for the hilarity to set in. It's a black-and-white show that's about 10 minutes long and has been running on German TV every New Year since the late 1960s. It holds the record for being the most repeated TV program ever. 2013 will be its 50th year of broadcasting.
The story line is pretty simple. It's rich Miss Sophie's 90th birthday and she's throwing a dinner party with the help of her butler, James. But all of the dinner guest are imaginary. They have names and empty places at the table, and James serves them each course with its accompanying alcoholic beverage. Since they aren't actually there, James has to impersonate and drink for each of them as they toast with Miss Sophie. James gets more and more drunk and the cycle continues. He also trips on the tiger skin rug about 8 times. I challenge you to click on the link above, watch the show (it's 10 minutes long) and get more than a mild chuckle out of it.
I first saw Dinner for One at our house in St Paul when Dizzy and Sonja were in town for the holidays. Sonja told us how it's a German tradition and is so funny... Brian and I were geared up for a good laugh. We ended up staring at each other, wondering if we'd missed the point. If the show were in German that would have been likely, but because it's in English we didn't have much of an explanation. Since moving here, I've discovered we are not alone. Many expats in Germany are confused about why Dinner for One is such a hit, and what sort of inside joke they are not getting. A few of the German kids in Brian's homeroom begged to watch it the day before Christmas break. They cracked up laughing while the international kids just sat there, confused about where the punchline had gone.
I don't know where I will be on December 31st, 2013. Maybe I'll learn about another New Year's tradition somewhere else. And if I'm watching anything on TV, it's more likely to be Sylvester the Cat than Dinner for One.
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