2009, holy crap!
Jan. 1st, 2009 02:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imwaldeHappy new year everyone! Or as they say here, guten Rutsch (it means good slip literally, like slip into the new year) or alles Gute zum Neujahr.
A friend had a party up on her roof (It's -7 out tonight!) with a 360 view of Vienna. And there were fireworks in every direction, 90% of it (legal here) private initiative of drunken celebrating Viennese. It's 215am here now, and they are still being shot off by people up on their roofs/balconies. So let me tell you, all the US laws against fireworks and how you need to be licensed/get a permit/have the barge be 500 yards away out in the water blah blah? BULLSHIT. If drunk Viennese can set a barrage like the blitz off from rooftops all over the densely populated/full of old buildings downtown and nothing bad happens, then there really don't need to be so many laws about it! Granted, I don't know if anyone blew off their hands or something, but no sirens and no fires, that I can say.
Anyhow, it's a tradition here at new years to give people a pig. There are stands that popped up all over Vienna selling little wooden/glass/clay/stuffed/plastic pigs in all shapes and sizes. You give them to people to wish them luck for the coming year.
I asked or tried to ask one of the sellers why pigs are considered lucky. Here is our conversation which transpired in German.
Me: Why a pig?
Her: For luck.
Me: Right, I know. But why a pig?
Her: (pause) For luck.
So I can shed no light on that mystery, I am afraid. Then again, I don't know why four leaf clovers are considered lucky either. Anyway, I'm off to bed, happy new year!
A friend had a party up on her roof (It's -7 out tonight!) with a 360 view of Vienna. And there were fireworks in every direction, 90% of it (legal here) private initiative of drunken celebrating Viennese. It's 215am here now, and they are still being shot off by people up on their roofs/balconies. So let me tell you, all the US laws against fireworks and how you need to be licensed/get a permit/have the barge be 500 yards away out in the water blah blah? BULLSHIT. If drunk Viennese can set a barrage like the blitz off from rooftops all over the densely populated/full of old buildings downtown and nothing bad happens, then there really don't need to be so many laws about it! Granted, I don't know if anyone blew off their hands or something, but no sirens and no fires, that I can say.
Anyhow, it's a tradition here at new years to give people a pig. There are stands that popped up all over Vienna selling little wooden/glass/clay/stuffed/plastic pigs in all shapes and sizes. You give them to people to wish them luck for the coming year.
I asked or tried to ask one of the sellers why pigs are considered lucky. Here is our conversation which transpired in German.
Me: Why a pig?
Her: For luck.
Me: Right, I know. But why a pig?
Her: (pause) For luck.
So I can shed no light on that mystery, I am afraid. Then again, I don't know why four leaf clovers are considered lucky either. Anyway, I'm off to bed, happy new year!
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Date: 2009-01-01 11:08 pm (UTC)What did we do before YouTube?
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Date: 2009-01-02 12:05 am (UTC)