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.
That sounds like a blast! The Phila. Orchestra does a concert of Viennese waltzes for New Year’s every year and I always wanted to go, but maybe I should just come to Vienna instead next year!