There are a couple of days every year were Germans go a little crazy. New Years Eve (Silvester) is one of those days. It's not that every Silvester custom is crazy or that everyone participates in the craziness, but enough do that it is noteworthy.
Silvester is not a holiday. Stores and offices are open until about 2pm. At 5pm, the Berliner Philharmonic plays on national television. The Prime Minister give a speech broadly outlining accomplishments and goal of the government. The Minister President of Rhineland-Pfalz gives a similar speech on regional television. All of this fits within the definition of normal.
The craziness begins a little later, around 8 or 9pm, small groups begin to test out the fire crackers and rockets that they had purchased earlier in the week. The stores began selling fireworks on Tuesday this year. People streamed to the stores to fill their shopping carts from the several tables of fireworks offered. The sound from the fireworks did slowed down from 9 to 11:55. Then just before midnight, a larger portion of the community heads out to the street and the fireworks really begin. This year the crescendo was continuous until 12:40, then it dwindled down to sporadic explosions or rocket blasts for another 20 or 30 minutes. Frannie found a spot between Magda and I and managed to make it through the noise, but she was not trilled with this unexpected change.
The next day, the streets were littered with the paper/plastic from the fireworks and their packaging.
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