GUTES NEUES JAHR – Happy New Year!

Austria

In Austria, New Year’s Eve is usually celebrated with friends and family. At exactly midnight, all radio and television programmes operated by ORF broadcast the sound of the Pummerin, the bell of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, followed by the Donauwalzer (“The Blue Danube”) by Johann Strauss II. Many people dance to this at parties or in the street. Large crowds gather in the streets of Vienna, where the municipal government organises a series of stages where bands and orchestras play. Fireworks are set off by both municipal governments and individuals.

Germany

In Germany, parties are common on New Year’s Eve (Silvester). Fireworks are very popular, both with individuals and large municipal displays. Every year Berlin hosts one of the largest New Year’s Eve celebrations in all of Europe, attended by over a million people. The focal point is the Brandenburg Gate, where midnight fireworks are centered. Germans toast the New Year with a glass of Sekt (German sparkling wine) or champagne.

Since 1972, each New Year’s Eve, several German television stations broadcast a short comedy play in English (recorded by West German television in 1963) entitled Dinner for One. A line from the comedy sketch, “the same procedure as every year”, has become a catch phrase in Germany.

Switzerland

In some parts of Switzerland, Sylvester Clauses drive away evil spirits. In Urnäsch, in the canton of Appenzell Outer Rhodes, a colourful tradition continues to be practiced on the last day of the year. Strangely clad figures with elaborate masks and noisy bells move from house to house, in a bid to drive away evil spirits.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/multimedia/video/Sylvester_Claus.html?cid=667924