New Year’s Eve is a very festive time in Vienna. Various stages are set up all over the city playing anything from Oldies to Techno. Along the way you can also pick up hot gluhwein or punsch to keep warm. Our path that night took us to the Haus der Musik where they were teaching various dances. Some more traditional like Waltzes or Salsa, and others that I think they just made up as they went along. One in particular involved playing an air guitar and a butter churning motion. Once again I proved to myself that I have no rhythm whatsoever.
There are many things that are considered good luck for the New Year. Among them are pigs, mushrooms, clovers, and ladybugs. There are even stands set up where you can buy pig hats and masks(see above). When the clock strikes midnight, champagne is drunk and the empty glass shattered on the ground (this is also good luck). Strauss’s Blue Danube is blared throughout the city and the Viennese waltz in the New Year.
In Austria the Christmas season starts on December 5th when Krampus (think Santa’s alter ego) goes around and beats and whips all the naughty children. The good children leave a shoe outside their door that night and St. Nicholas (from whom we derive Santa Claus) puts fruit and nuts in them while they are sleeping. On Christmas Eve Austrians put up their Christmas trees often decorating them with candles (I’m still not sure how that works). During the afternoon on Christmas Eve the Christkind (or Christ Child) comes around and delivers gifts under the tree. If that wasn’t odd enough the ChristKind is almost always depicted as a female angel.