What’s with the pigs?

Seems like everybody and their dog is letting off fireworks too.   Something about keeping away the evil spirits.   Right.

I’d wager that if asked,  half the people wouldn’t know where that one came from,  since any excuse to let off fireworks is usually met with a certain amount of enthusiasm.

Like most everything else here in Absurdistan,  fireworks are regulated,  with there being four different “classes”,  with class three and four being those used by the professionals.    The other three classes are broken down presumably by their level of danger,  with the rules being that you have to be a certain age to buy whatever type of firework it happens to be.  Kind of like one of those signs at the amusement park that states,  “You must be this tall to go on this ride”.   You must be 16 to buy bottle rockets,  for example.   Nothing in there about letting a younger sibling light them up though…

 

This also explains why there were remnants from the aforementioned bottle rockets on our balcony when we came back here last year after being in Canada for the holidays.  I think if I dare go outside I’d best be wearing some sort of full body armour.   Or at least a hoody.

I really didn’t have a whole lot to say today, but I seem to be going off at the fingers here.  

I’ve been seeing every possible size and example of swine out on the streets,  (little stuffed piggies,  not the inhabitants of Vienna) and there are now even vendors that have set up who are selling little tiny figurines for New Years.   The figurines are still a bit of a mystery,  but the I did sort out the bit about the pig end of things.   It seems that first of all,  Austrians will quite often have a roast pig on New Year’s day,  so as a result,  the pig is somehow a sign of good luck.  This is making very little sense as I type it,  but it’s true.  Really.

I found this snippet on the web: “The suckling pig is the symbol for good luck for the new year. It's served on a table decorated with tiny edible pigs. Dessert often consists of green peppermint ice cream in the shape of a four-leaf clover.”

There ya go.  One more piece of totally useless information.

There is some sort of plan afoot to actually GO OUT tonight and head down to Stephansplatz,  although I’m reasonably certain we can see the fireworks from our balcony.  I mean,  it wasn’t for nothing that we moved into a top floor apartment after all.

 

So I hope everyone has a Happy New Year,   or as I’ve heard said in there here parts,  “Guter Rutsch ins neue Jahr!”,   which is kind of hard to translate.  “rutschen”  is to slip, skid or even crawl,   so to wish someone a good “Rutsch”,   doesn’t really work in English I’m afraid.  “May your skid into the New Year be a good one”?   Something like that.  That’s all I got.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

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