Granny Trude has had enough of 2020. But despite everything she wants to see out the year in a dignified, environmentally friendly manner, and welcome 2021 with hope in her heart. For that she needs pots, pans and plenty of candle ends.
My dears,New Year’s knocking on the door now, and I must say it’s high time we saw the back of this stressful, sad year, so that we can soon begin to look towards the future with hope – it’s all about vaccinating against coronavirus.
Pots not rockets
This virus has shown us a lot, most of all the fact that we should take nothing for granted in this world. Maybe it helps us to look for something good despite all the unfortunate implications. For instance in view of climate change – which is of course still something we have to address – it might be a good idea to change aspects of our New Year’s Eve rituals. Now more than ever we have to find different, environmentally-friendly ways to “banish the evil spirits with noise”. You see, driving out the demons is the original reason we make such a racket on the last day of the year.Drumming out the discontent
In the old days people would use pots, pans, rattles and suchlike to do this. So why not bang on the saucepans a bit at midnight and drum that discontent out of our souls, symbolically seeing off the virus and other nuisances with a great big noise?! It would be good for our air quality, because year after year the highest concentration of particulates is measured after the pyrotechnic extravaganza. Viewed that way it really isn’t such a bad thing that the big firework displays have been banned to avoid crowds.Indeed, that should be the future: celebrating New Year’s Eve with far fewer rockets and thereby protecting the climate – so that my grandchildren and great-grandchildren still have something left of the world. Admittedly it would be a change born of necessity. But a good one! I’m just imagining my granddaughter Miri standing on her balcony in Hamburg with her boyfriend and my great-granddaughter Ava at midnight – bashing on a pot for all they’re worth and yelling at the tops of their voices! And the neighbours’ family on the balcony next door doing the same. The whole street hammering away on pots and railings, what a din! Marvellous – for seeing in the New Year, at least!
Thinking forward: wax
Actually I’d like to do the New Year’ Eve pot-bashing too – with my friend Inge, with whom I intend to see in the year, but it would be too much of a shock for Farmer Georg’s animals in the barn across the way. So we’ll spend the evening more quietly, doing wax casting and maybe watching an old film. Incidentally, wax casting is far more environmentally friendly and less detrimental to health than traditional lead casting. For this reason the EU also banned the sale of cast lead products in 2018. So Inge and I plan to foretell the future with wax shapes. Have you come across that? If not, do give it a try. It’s sure to be fun!Wax casting – here’s how
Teaspoon-sized wax pellets are simple to make from leftover candle ends and crayons. Or just use candle ends. Melt the ends, ideally sorted according to colour, in a screw-top jar in a pan of boiling water and pour it into ice-cube trays or – a tip from Inge – in the plastic mould tray of an empty Advent calendar. Your pellets shouldn’t be too big, they’ll need space to melt on a teaspoon later on. Carefully press them out once cool.Lots of scope for interpretation
On New Year’s Eve all you need is a candle on a holder and an old teaspoon for each guest, a large bowl of iced water in the middle for everyone (add ice cubes), and ideally a list as well to help with your predictions. You can find plenty of those on the internet. For example if you see a cup in your wax shape, you’ll experience “happiness and health”. And if we all decipher a nail in our wax on NYE 2020, there’s just one thing we desire: better times. Or maybe the wax pattern is showing a gateway after all. If so, a move’s on the cards. That’s not without excitement either… You can already see that it’s possible to have quite a lot of fun with fortune-telling. There’s just one thing you need to be careful of – tip the liquid wax off your spoon into the icy water quickly, without immersing the spoon.A quiet New Year’s Eve with a small circle of friends – we’ve been practising for that since March, haven’t we my dears? The truth is that since then we’ve sat comfortably on our sofas very many times, a few kilos heavier around the hips, having games evenings, watching films and box sets. So we’re well trained. Then we’ll manage the New Year celebrations in the same style as well, won’t we? Losing weight – just like every New Year – is something to plan for the year ahead.
In this spirit, happy New Year – wishing you lots of noise and all the best!
Yours, Trude
December 2020