New Years Eve or also called Feast of Sylvester

Ray Vavrek is coordinator of the Ganymede Group, based in Colorado. He always posts interesting seasonal information in their monthly meeting announcements.

The Feast of Sylvester

New Year’s Eve is know as Sylvester in Germany, Austria, Croatia; Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland and Israel, La Festa di San Silvestro in Italy, Sylvesteravond in Holland and Szilveszter in Hungary.
In France, New Year's Eve is called la fête de Saint-Sylvestre and is usually celebrated with a feast, called le Réveillon de Saint-Sylvestre. The feast tends to include special items like pancakes, champagne and foie gras, foods that are supposed to bring prosperity to the household in the coming year. The accompanying party can range from an intimate dinner with friends to une soirée dansante (ball).
Saint Sylvester I was Pope from 314 to 335 A.D. during the time of Constantine the Great. Sylvester was a Roman citizen and was chosen Pope in 314. He continued the work of organizing the peacetime Church. Legend says he baptized the Roman Emperor Constantine, an act that changed the course of European history.
Sylvester saw the building of famous churches, notably the Basilica of St. Peter and the Basilica of St. John Lateran. It is quite probable that the first martyrology [list of Roman martyrs] was drawn up in his reign. St. Sylvester died in 335. He was buried in a church that he himself had built over the Catacomb of Priscilla on the Via Salaria in Rome. His feast is kept on December 31.


Germanic Celebration of Sylvester

The night of the Holy Sylvester, the last night of the year, has always been the night of fools and a funny good time. In many German-speaking areas the change of the year is celebrated noisily and merrily. Guests attend a Sylvester Ball. There is eating, drinking, dancing and singing. It may be accompanied by the popular "Sylvester" custom of Bleigiessen. A small piece of lead will be melted over a flame in an old spoon and dropped into a bowl of cold water. From the shape you can supposedly tell your fortune for the coming year. At midnight, when the old year is almost gone and the New Year is about to start, glasses are filled with champagne or wine, and toasts and hugs go with wishing each other "ein gutes neues Jahr" or “einen guten Rutsch (ins Neujahr)!”