Um, sorta dropped the ball on this one...but Happy New Year nonetheless!
As may be imagined, I had a hangover New Year's Day (and beyond) but, well, you're only young once.
The typical Austrian name for New Year's Eve is Silvester, owing that December 31 is St. Silvester's feast day. Gotta get that Catholic jazz in there somehow.
Interesting to note is that in Austria, the new year is celebrated with pigs, ladders, four-leaf-clovers, and little lead pieces as good luck symbols. The lead pieces are melted and then thrown into water to divine a person's fortune for the coming year - sort of like reading tea leaves.
Fireworks are also used to celebrate, though I'm going to have to be a Grinch and say I dislike fireworks. The city of Vienna has a fireworks show near St. Stephen's Cathedral, which is always so crowded you're likely to have something stepped on or stolen. Locals also buy their own and light them in their backyards. Or, failing sufficient backyardage, in the street. This New Year's Eve, a friend of mine got hit in the forehead by a rogue bottle rocket, which has dampened my enjoyment of such spectacles.
The part of the evening I LOVED was dancing the "Blue Danube" waltz at midnight - which is typically Viennese, sort of like how we sing "Auld Lang Syne" at midnight in the USA - and I suppose probably also the UK.
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