Today is December 31: in English, we refer to this day “New Year’s Eve”, but  in German it’s called Sylvester, because December 31 is St. Sylvester’s feast day in the Roman Catholic Church calendar.

In Germany, they drink Sekt — the champagne-like German sparkling wine — to toast the coming of the new year at midnight. Chris and I might do that this year, although if we choose an alcoholic sparkling beverage it’s more likely to be Italian Prosecco, since I haven’t bought any Sekt.

On one website it claims that Germans also eat a spicy Mitternachtssuppe at midnight, finishing off the meal with Berliners (jelly doughnuts). Really? At midnight? Hmm. Even though I did buy some Berliners for us for today, I’m not even sure how easy it will be to eat those at midnight, let alone a spicy soup whose primary ingredient is sauerkraut. Hopefully, our Italian red underwear luck, along with eating lentils (also good luck in Italy for New Year’s) will make up for anything we’re missing by skipping the sauerkraut soup.

BTW, that website doesn’t mention Germans eating a New Year’s pretzel. However, at the bakery where I bought our Berliners today they had a giant Neujahrbretzel. It was at least a foot across, give or take. According to the bakery clerk, it’s tradition on Sylvester to give it as a gift (maybe when you go to someone’s house to have that soup?), or to eat it yourself with ham or cheese or jam.

Giant Neujahrbretzel

We tried it (I took the photo before I sliced it), and it’s basically a plan white bread.

Anyway, the one thing you absolutely must do in Germany on Sylvester — the one thing without which it wouldn’t really be New Year’s, according to one of the locals I asked —  is to watch Dinner for One.  As you may recall from my post last year, Dinner for One is an old British comedy sketch, filmed in Hamburg in 1963, which has been broadcast on German televisions ever since. There’s an introduction in German before the real “action” begins, but the main part of the show is performed in English.

Note that even though it’s in English, it’s never been shown on TV in any English-speaking country – it’s only traditionally shown on televisions stations in German-speaking countries on Sylvester. It’s supposedly traditional to sip along with the butler, James, as he drinks 16 (or more) drinks during the 18-minute show. It’s actually shown several times throughout on the day on TV here, on multiple channels.  But to follow the Sylvester tradition, you really need to watch the one that starts after 11:30, timed to end near midnight.

Now you’re probably reading this blog from a non-German speaking country, so you might not have it available on a TV station near you.  To help,  here are some links:

1. Dinner for One –  the 18 minute version is the “official” one that is broadcast each year. Includes a brief intro in German, but the rest is in English. This was filmed in April 1963 and first shown in June 1963. The story goes that a German television producer had seen the British comedian, Freddie Frinton, perform this sketch at a live show in Hamburg in 1961, and loved it so much that he invited Frinton back to Hamburg some day to film it.
2. Dinner for One – an alternate Swiss version that is the main version that gets posted on the Internet. It’s got the same actors and the same script, but a markedly different set, and a running time of only 11 minutes. Last year, when I found this one online, I was pretty sure it was different from the one Chris and I watched on Sylvester last year, but no body ever mentioned it in online information I’d located.
   However, just today I discovered that there’s a book on everything you ever wanted to know about Dinner for One.  I downloaded the Kindle version just this morning, and it is in German, so I’m trying to poke around in it quickly looking for answers to my questions.  What I’ve found out so far is that this Swiss version was actually filmed first, in March 1963 in Zürich, done to be the Swiss entry for the 1963 Montreux “Golden Rose” TV-programming festival. It didn’t win, and it’s the German version filmed a couple of months later that still gets the yearly airplay in German-speaking countries (although maybe not in Switzerland). But it is the one that you’ll find if you search on YouTube for Dinner for One.
3. Dinner for One Script. People in Germany (and elsewhere in German-speaking Europe) will immediate recognize this exchange in English from the show:
   James:  The same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?
   Miss Sophie: The same procedure as every year, James!

It turns out that there are also live-action versions of Dinner for One performed around Germany at least at this time of year.  But it’s the 1963 version shot in Hamburg  with Freddie Frinton that is what most people think of when think of Dinner for One. Frinton had been a moderately successful British comedian who’d purchased the rights to this sketch back in 1945. He was never that well-known in Britain, but Frinton’s fame lives on in the German-speaking world as the drunken butler, James in Dinner for One. It’s an interesting and somewhat ironic legacy for an actor who was himself a teetotaler in real life.

Anyway, I’ve been trying to ask more German friends this year if there is any special show they watch on Sylvester on television, just to see if it’s really still that popular.  I consider it a “yes” when they respond by saying “same procedure as every year, James”; to date, that’s how people respond, they don’t actually say the name of the show. No one I’ve asked so far, though, has been able to explain how this came to be so popular in Germany, and why it’s a Sylvester tradition. I mean, the dinner in the show takes place at the old lady’s 90th birthday party and makes no mention of New Year’s Eve at all.  I’m sure the answer to that question is in the book I just bought, but my quick scan unearthed only one highfalutin explanation by a university professor of media psychology (from the University of Tübingen!), who posits that Dinner for One is a parable for modern life.  Hmm, I will definitely need to read the rest of that chapter to figure that one out.

Now that I have that book, though, I’m sure there’s far more research on my part still to be done about Dinner for One.  I know — I said the same thing in my blog post about this show last time. Consider it tradition.

After all, the phrase that people in Germany associate with New Year’s Eve is “the same procedure as every year”, right?   😉

Anyway, Happy New Year!

*****

P.S. BTW, that Golden Rose festival in Montreux in 1963 was an international festival. As I said, Dinner for One was the Swiss entry, but it didn’t win. So what was the winning entry? Glad you asked. Here’s a link to the opening number from that winning show.

Enjoy – and again, Happy New Year!